complex clockwork mechanism made it very expensive.”
Jason held the stock against his right shoulder and sighted along the barrel. “It isn’t rifled, of course.”
“No. Rifling had been known for some time, and was used for some specialized hunting weapons. But aside from the added expense, it was hard to get a ball down the barrel of a muzzle-loader when the inside of the barrel was grooved.”
“But how accurate was a smoothbore musket like this? I seem to recall reading that the flintlock versions of the following century—the ‘Brown Bess’ type muskets—could consistently hit a foot-square target at up to forty yards but fell off drastically beyond that and couldn’t hit anything much smaller than an elephant at a hundred yards.”
“Which was why the tactics of that era emphasized massed volley fire by dense formations of infantry,” Grenfell nodded. “No individual soldier was expected to hit an individual target. But the tests we’ve performed indicate that the kind of musket you’re holding, although of earlier vintage, could do considerably better. For one thing, it has a somewhat longer barrel, always an aid to range and accuracy. For another, compared to standard infantry weapons it is, as you will have gathered, very well-made.”
Jason passed the musket around. When it came to Nesbit, he handled it as he might have a dead animal. “Dr. Grenfell, I don’t understand. You’ve intimated that one of these guns cost a small fortune. And in our history orientation you explained that, in terms of their social origins, most of the pirates could best be described as . . . well . . .”
“Lowlifes,” Mondrago suggested helpfully.
“That’s one way to put it,” Grenfell nodded.
“Then how on Earth did they afford these very high-priced weapons?”
“Any way it took,” stated Grenfell succinctly. “When someone went into piracy, his first order of business was to obtain a good musket from the Dutch traders who handled their distribution. The original buccaneers in Hispaniola had traded hides for them—twenty hides per musket—because they needed them to bring down the wild pigs and cattle. And they needed to do so without ruining the hides, so they became crack shots. In our target period, aspiring pirates would either use whatever they had saved from their wages as indentured servants—if that was what they had been, as was often the case—or else borrow the money against their future shares of loot. It was an essential initial investment, because of the advantage it gave them over the Spaniards.”
“Who were armed with what?” Pauline Da Cunha inquired.
“Arquebuses, for the most part. They were the earliest kind of practical matchlock shoulder-fired arms, and had been around for almost two hundred years by the 1660s. They were obsolete, and inferior in every way. But they were cheap, which was why the Spanish government still equipped its solders with them—often shoddy ones.”
“Typical!” sniffed Mondrago.
“Then why didn’t the Spanish colonials buy good weapons from the Dutch traders for themselves, like the pirates did?” Da Cunha persisted.
“They couldn’t, without dealing with smugglers—a serious offense. Remember, trade with the Spanish colonies was a royal monopoly. Neither the Dutch nor any other foreign merchants were allowed in. And the Spanish mercantile network, if you could call it that, was hopeless. The colonials had a saying: ‘If death came from Madrid, we would all live to a great age.’”
“I’m beginning to understand,” said Boyer after the chuckles had subsided, “why the Spanish empire, which looks so vast and mighty on a map, was so unsuccessful in coping with a relative handful of . . . lowlifes.”
“Actually, there were a lot of reasons.The stultifying centralized bureaucracy made flexible response impossible. The outdated arquebuses were largely wielded by amateur militia, who were up against hardened killers. Those
Jason held the stock against his right shoulder and sighted along the barrel. “It isn’t rifled, of course.”
“No. Rifling had been known for some time, and was used for some specialized hunting weapons. But aside from the added expense, it was hard to get a ball down the barrel of a muzzle-loader when the inside of the barrel was grooved.”
“But how accurate was a smoothbore musket like this? I seem to recall reading that the flintlock versions of the following century—the ‘Brown Bess’ type muskets—could consistently hit a foot-square target at up to forty yards but fell off drastically beyond that and couldn’t hit anything much smaller than an elephant at a hundred yards.”
“Which was why the tactics of that era emphasized massed volley fire by dense formations of infantry,” Grenfell nodded. “No individual soldier was expected to hit an individual target. But the tests we’ve performed indicate that the kind of musket you’re holding, although of earlier vintage, could do considerably better. For one thing, it has a somewhat longer barrel, always an aid to range and accuracy. For another, compared to standard infantry weapons it is, as you will have gathered, very well-made.”
Jason passed the musket around. When it came to Nesbit, he handled it as he might have a dead animal. “Dr. Grenfell, I don’t understand. You’ve intimated that one of these guns cost a small fortune. And in our history orientation you explained that, in terms of their social origins, most of the pirates could best be described as . . . well . . .”
“Lowlifes,” Mondrago suggested helpfully.
“That’s one way to put it,” Grenfell nodded.
“Then how on Earth did they afford these very high-priced weapons?”
“Any way it took,” stated Grenfell succinctly. “When someone went into piracy, his first order of business was to obtain a good musket from the Dutch traders who handled their distribution. The original buccaneers in Hispaniola had traded hides for them—twenty hides per musket—because they needed them to bring down the wild pigs and cattle. And they needed to do so without ruining the hides, so they became crack shots. In our target period, aspiring pirates would either use whatever they had saved from their wages as indentured servants—if that was what they had been, as was often the case—or else borrow the money against their future shares of loot. It was an essential initial investment, because of the advantage it gave them over the Spaniards.”
“Who were armed with what?” Pauline Da Cunha inquired.
“Arquebuses, for the most part. They were the earliest kind of practical matchlock shoulder-fired arms, and had been around for almost two hundred years by the 1660s. They were obsolete, and inferior in every way. But they were cheap, which was why the Spanish government still equipped its solders with them—often shoddy ones.”
“Typical!” sniffed Mondrago.
“Then why didn’t the Spanish colonials buy good weapons from the Dutch traders for themselves, like the pirates did?” Da Cunha persisted.
“They couldn’t, without dealing with smugglers—a serious offense. Remember, trade with the Spanish colonies was a royal monopoly. Neither the Dutch nor any other foreign merchants were allowed in. And the Spanish mercantile network, if you could call it that, was hopeless. The colonials had a saying: ‘If death came from Madrid, we would all live to a great age.’”
“I’m beginning to understand,” said Boyer after the chuckles had subsided, “why the Spanish empire, which looks so vast and mighty on a map, was so unsuccessful in coping with a relative handful of . . . lowlifes.”
“Actually, there were a lot of reasons.The stultifying centralized bureaucracy made flexible response impossible. The outdated arquebuses were largely wielded by amateur militia, who were up against hardened killers. Those
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