During the Age of Fighting Sail, the principle weapons of a ship of war were the great guns, the cannons. Ships also carried small arms to aid the crew in boarding enemy vessels and repelling boarders. These included firearms – pistols and muskets – and edged weapons such as cutlasses, boarding axes and boarding pikes. When not in action, the small arms would be secured in chests or racks. When clearing for action, they would be distributed around the decks. 

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The seamen were divided into gun crews. Each gun crew member was also allocated an additional duty denoted by a letter against his name on the ship’s station bill - B for Boarder (to form boarding parties to capture enemy ships or repel boarders), F for Fire (to form firefighting parties), L for Lanthorn (to hold a lanthorn – lantern - when night firing), P for Pumps (to man the bilge pumps and hoses), S for Sail (to handle the sails). 

 

When the order “Boarders away” was called the men denoted as B would leave their gun, pick up their arms and rally to their assigned role as directed by the officers (see NOTE).

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The collection contains examples of each of the above items (except for a musket), together with other Royal Navy artifacts.