Pirates. Maybe it all started for me there. My earliest memories that involve black powder firearms are dressing up as a pirate for Halloween one year as a kid, having my LEGO pirates battle the Royal Navy, and watching 'Muppets: Treasure Island' and 'Hook.'

What’s not to like? Fire and smoke billowing from the ships’ guns, shiny silver clad pistols, the clash of blades, colorful costumes, chests of silver and gold, and daring adventures. Everything about the Age of Sail is captivating, including pirate weapons.

If you are looking for a thrilling series featuring plenty of powder smoke, clashing steel, and pirate weapons, you cannot go wrong with 'Black Sails' on Starz.

Age of the Pirate

Over the years, I’ve occasionally rekindled my excitement of pirate tales. I was admittedly excited for the first of the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies, and they were funny and entertaining, but the monsters and magic took away too much from the flintlocks and swordplay. 'Assassins Creed: Black Flag' on the other hand was a ton of fun, and lets you play pirate yourself. I really enjoyed Starz’s 'Black Sails' which was a nice mashup of history mixed with fiction with plenty of action.

Two classic pirate weapons: Charles Vane is one of many pirates in 'Black Sails' shown fighting with their pistol in their dominant hand and their sword in their other.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read Stevenson’s classic 'Treasure Island,' but Michael Crichton’s 'Pirate Latitudes' was a great read. It is a tale about pirates set in the mid-17th century. The text was discovered and published after Crichton’s death and provides a much more “historical” look at the famous Caribbean pirates. Like so many of his books, it would be great adapted into a movie.

Captain Flint in 'Black Sails' is often shown wielding a Scottish Highland flintlock Pistol, a less prominent pirate gun in popular culture.

Pirates are certainly among the most colorful characters widely romanticized in popular culture and have been so since the early 1700s when real-life swashbuckling pirates still posed a significant threat on the high seas. They were no laughing matter back then.

When most of us think of pirates, we imagine the fiendish crews that stalked the seas during the latter part of the so-called “Golden Age of Piracy” in the early 18th century. It was during this period that the most famous pirates rose to power, and many operated out of the Caribbean Isles, including Nassau and Jamaica. They even founded a short-lived “Republic of Pirates.”

Captain Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, is certainly among the most notorious of all of the legendary pirates of the Golden Age of Piracy which lasted from 1650 to 1730. Blackbeard famously carried several pistols in addition to his sword, a one-man arsenal of pirate weapons.

This era is well-known in large part thanks to the publication of 'A General History of the Pyrates' published in 1724 which features many of the pirates that remain household names today, including Black Beard, Calico Jack Rackham, Charles Vane, Anne Bonny, and many more. This book has provided much of the material for subsequent histories as well as various fictional adventures.

During their years plundering vessels on the high seas and instilling fear in any who must cross the Atlantic, the pirates used a variety of weapons, much of it captured from their “prey.”

Pirates certainly utilized their ships’ guns to damage and threaten vessels, but given their aims to capture the contents and add captured ships to their fleets, they often preferred more up close and personal weapons, famously swords and pistols, but most importantly of all, fear. If they could capture a ship without a shot fired, that was certainly preferable.

These Flemish flintlock pistols from the first quarter of the 18th century are what are commonly called horse or holster pistols. Like pirates, men fighting on horseback often carried more than one pistol. With their gilt mounts, this pair would look right at home in a treasure chest.

Pirate Pistols

Just about every pirate movie will feature plenty of flintlock pistols. By the latter part of the Golden Age of Piracy in the early 1700s, flintlocks were the dominant form of firearms in Europe and the New World.

This silver mounted Spanish miquelet dates to the early 18th century during the Golden Age of Piracy when Spanish ships loaded with New World gold and silver were prime targets for pirates. Captured miquelets became favorite pirate guns.

Pirates would have also used matchlocks, various earlier flint and steel weapons such as dog locks, miquelets from Spain, and whatever else they could get their hands on.

Many of the pirates in the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' series are armed with flintlock pistols, iconic weapons widely used by pirates. Jack Sparrow commonly has an English silver mounted flintlock pistol with grotesque mask pommel caps, a popular style in both England and America in the 18th century and into the early 19th century.

The primary downside of most muzzleloading pistols utilized by the pirates was the fact that they were nearly always single shot, and reloading during close combat was not practical. To add additional firepower, pirates were known to carry multiple pistols during boarding parties. Black Beard famously carried several. This allowed for multiple shots quickly and would have also been intimidating.

These “turn off” pistols by James Willmore (top) and James Freeman (bottom) in the early 18th century towards the end of the Golden Age of Piracy are what are popularly known as Queen Anne pistols as they became popular during her reign.

Another option to allow a faster rate of fire was to utilize the Queen Anne pistols which show up in some popular representations of pirates and were actually weapons of the latter part of the Golden Age of Piracy. The classic Queen Anne pistols feature barrels that unthreaded from the breech. They are often also known as turn-off pistols for this reason.

Edward Teach in 'Black Sails' is shown wielding four Pedersoli Queen Anne pistols which are actually built as traditional sidelock muzzleloaders. However, there were turnoff pistols of similar design in the mid-18th century.

Barrels that readily screw-off allow the pistols to be reloaded fairly quickly and also allowed for a tighter ball-to-bore fit creating better velocities. A true Queen Anne pistol also has the lock formed as part of the breech and typically has the frizzen spring folding between the priming pan and the cock. The barrels are also often “cannon” shaped giving them a real maritime feel.

Dustin Hoffman as the evil and mad titular captain in 'Hook' is clearly armed with a reproduction of a U.S. Harpers Ferry Model 1805 flintlock pistol. Rock Island Auction Co. regularly sells both the originals and the reproductions. He can also be seen with a boxlock flintlock pistol in another scene.

In most pop culture depictions of pirate guns, the pirates and their adversaries are armed with pistols from the latter part of the 18th century or the early 19th century. Pistols from the latter part of the flintlock’s reign are more readily available, especially reproductions for actual firing using blank charges.

There certainly remained pirates long after the Golden Age of Piracy came to an end. Pirates known as the Barbary Corsairs led to the first U.S. foreign wars following the American Revolution, and Somali pirates remain a threat to this day.

Of course we cannot forget one of the best pirate movies of all: 'Muppets Treasure Island.' Tim Curry as Long John Silver has a pair of anachronistic British New Land Pattern Flintlock Pistols of the style used in the Napoleonic Wars and War of 1812.

Pirate Swords

Swords were among the most widely used weapons on the seas for centuries in a variety of sizes and styles. Likewise, the pirates of the silver screen, especially the pirate captains, are inevitably depicted armed with a sword. Cutlasses are among the most famous of maritime weapons.

A pair of 19th century American cutlasses. The classic cutlass remained in use by the U.S. Navy even after World War II. As the most iconic naval edged weapon, they are featured prominently in pirate tales like 'Peter Pan & Wendy.'

A classic cutlass featured a fairly short, curved, single edged blade well-suited for slashing and often a basket hilt that protected the user’s hand. Other similar swords such as the hanger sword and cuttoe were also used. These too had typically fairly short and curved blades.

This hanger sword was attributed to the 17th century. Similar swords continued to be used in the 18th century and were useful for hunters, officers, and of course pirates. Later French briquet swords are used occasionally in 'Our Flag Means Death.'

The cutlass was one of the most ideal pirate weapons because they were easier to carry than a longer sword, durable, and also very useful for other tasks besides fighting such as cutting through rigging or clearing vegetation when on land.

Will Turner duel wields a smallsword in his duel with Captain Jack Sparrow in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.' The ornate small sword above would be well-suited for a captain in the movies for a duel with his nemesis.

Smallswords were also popular pirate weapons in the 17th and 18th centuries. Mainly intended for one-on-one dueling, smallswords were less utilitarian and were designed for thrusting rather than cutting. In popular representations of pirates, it is often the captains that wield smallsword in duels.

In 'Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag' there is plenty of swordplay. In this fight, Edward Kenway is wielding a pair of curved swords while the enemy captain is fighting with a small sword similar to those above.

The Mighty Blunderbuss

The blunderbuss is one of the most iconic pirate guns. With its belled muzzle and often large bore, the blunderbuss makes an imposing impression. If you have ever watched a pirate movie or swashbuckling television series, you almost certainly saw more than one blunderbusses in use.

With an approximately 16 bore barrel, this blunderbuss offered similar firepower to the other smoothbores of the eras.

In the movies, blunderbusses tend to be shown as having incredible power much like the coach guns that send outlaws flying in the Westerns. While they certainly pack a punch, the blunderbuss wouldn't actually be sending people soaring through the air.

Many blunderbusses are around .65 caliber (~16 bore aka carbine bore to the British), but their flared muzzles make them look much larger. Some certainly are very big, with bores over 1 inch not terribly uncommon. Their flared muzzles made them easier to load and depending on the specific shape could also influence the shot spread.

This massive blunderbuss has a swivel mount and measures approximately 8 bore towards the breech and flares out to nearly two inches at the muzzle.

Oversized blunderbusses were also made as swivel guns which filled a role in between the blunderbusses and the full sized naval guns could also be used for signaling. While most blunderbusses were single barrel, there are a small number known with two barrels adding even more firepower, and in the latter part of the 18th century and into the early 19th century many English blunderbusses also sported folding “snap bayonets” that spring into place when released.

It doesn’t get much more pirate than a brass barrel blunderbuss, but you don’t see them like this very often: a double barrel blunderbuss! A custom made prop was used in 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' and the originals are so rare that RIAC has only sold two!

Pirate Muskets

Muskets are not usually shown as prominently in popular pirate depictions, but they would have been widely used. Muskets for naval service often vary little from their counterparts on land, but some like this Sea Service musket were made specifically for use at sea and were made somewhat simpler to lower costs while remaining effective.

Often later patterns of Brown Bess muskets stand in for earlier muskets in films and TV series, including in Starz’s 'Black Sails.'

Muskets like the British Brown Bess offered greater range and precision than pistols or blunderbusses but were still fairly limited in their range.

George Moller noted this as a "British Land Pattern Musket with Dutch metal components, circa 1702-1714." At that time, many muskets used plug bayonets that stuck into the barrels.

Other Edged Weapons

Axes, pikes, knives, dirks, and various other edged weapons and tools were common pirate weapons for centuries. In television and TV series, you don’t tend to see many pikes, but they were common naval weapons in the period. Axes make sporadic appearances, sometimes shown in one of their actual roles slashing through rigging.

Three British Royal Navy weapons: an 1804 Pattern Sea Service Cutlass, a boarding axe, and a pike.

In terms of edged weapons other than swords, knives and dirks are most commonly seen. These smaller, concealable blades would certainly would have been common and useful in the age of pirates.

Anne Bonny is shown adeptly wielding two knives instead of a sword like most of the male pirates in 'Black Sails.' Naval dirks were a common sidearm of sailors.

Various knives were useful as they were more easily carried than a sword and had more utility. Sometimes you’ll somewhat fancifully see a pirate in a movie easily deflecting blows from a sword with a knife, and pulling a hidden knife during a fight often adds some excitement to a scene.

Pirate Weapons from the Age of Sail at Rock Island Auction Company

If you are looking for iconic weapons from the Age of Sail including genuine antique flintlock pistols, swords, cutlasses, and more like those wielded by both pirates on the screen and those in real life, Rock Island Auction Company's frequent slate of auctions feature some of the rarest arms available to the collecting public.

If you are looking for some bigger firepower, Rock Island Auction Company also has naval guns like the one above each year as well as the fancy lantaka swivel guns from Southeast Asia.

Real pirate weapons are available at a wide range of price points, so anyone can seize a slice of this swashbuckling legacy. Whether you’re a seasoned treasure hunter or just finding your sea legs, Rock Island Auction offers the perfect harbor to claim to one of these fascinating relics.

Every time I think of ‘Treasure Island’ I can’t help but think of Norman in ‘On Golden Pond’ assigning his grandson to read it and report back to him. If you haven’t read this classic pirate story, give it a try and watch On Golden Pond while you are at it!