In the period 1775 to about 1825 what type of weapons if any merchant vessels carry ?. I am researching an area around Mutton Island Co Clare, north of the Shannon Estuary, Ireland. The Island was used as a hideout and storage facility for smugglers through the 1700s and up to 1820 when a coast guard station was built there, French privateers were regular visitors I even have a report of a 24 gun American Privateer 1777. The two most famous wrecks in the area are the San Marcus, Spanish Armada 1588 and the HMS Martin 1817, but there are also a number of large merchant vessels recorded lost in the area. I am looking specifically at merchant vessels crossing the Atlantic both ways and might have to dodge any of the above threats. Mick www.irishshipwrecks.ie

Hello Mick,   For what it's worth, my only known snippett of data is that the Michael Henley coastal collier ANN (London-Shields-London) carried blunderbusses in 1802.   Regards, Adi >________________________________ >From: Mick O Rourke <[email protected]> >To: [email protected] >Sent: Sunday, October 20, 2013 7:11:06 AM >Subject: [MAR] Armed Merchant Vessels > > >In the period 1775 to about 1825 what type of  weapons if any merchant >vessels carry ?. >I am researching an area around Mutton Island Co Clare, north of the Shannon >Estuary, Ireland. >The Island was used as a hideout and storage facility for smugglers through >the 1700s and up to 1820 when a coast guard station was built there, French >privateers were regular visitors I even have a report of a 24 gun American >Privateer 1777. >The two most famous wrecks in the area are the San Marcus, Spanish Armada >1588 and the HMS Martin 1817, but there are also a number of  large merchant >vessels recorded lost in the area. >I am looking specifically at merchant vessels crossing the Atlantic both >ways and might have to dodge any of the above threats. > >Mick > >www.irishshipwrecks.ie > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > >

Hi Mick For vessels going foreign i.e. Med. W. Indies, E. Indies and Far East I would suggest that merchant vessels were likely to receive attention from various types of piratical vessels. In the West Indies possibly a hangover from the Neopolitan Wars, when most colonial vessels were liable to be attacked, and it seems that the British were particularly lax on this score until the mid to late 1820s when they started to send naval parties to do something about it, but, from a Naval point of view it didn't really help their point of view, since, when merchant vessels and packets were being robbed regularly anyone who wanted to send valuables to Europe could do so in those days using the R.N. who were paid a percentage of the cargo for transporting it, and so we regularly see naval ships arriving at Portsmouth and Plymouth, from Mexico, various islands in the West Indies and both Coasts of S.America with quite large sums of money for transit to London. But eventually the message seems to have got through, and with many merchant service captains au fait with what was happening crying foul in the newspapers of Jamaica etc., and younger junior RN officers were put in charge of small, fast schooners based almost permanently in the W.I., who wouldn't therefore be entitled to receive monies for transmitting Treasure, but would probably be entitled to prize money for taking out pirates, and with the U.S. Navy started to make inroads into the problem, but it continued for some years on and off. The various states along the coast of North Africa, the Barbary States, were nearly all involved in slavery and piracy around this period, and their frigates were occasionally reported to have been seen in the English Channel during the first 2 decades of the 19th Century, but they seem to have avoided British vessels, although there were reports of British vessels and their crews having been taken, and of course, resulting in the Battle of Algiers (1816), when the British were joined by the Dutch and were able to solve the problem, at least temporarily, but there are occasional reports of ports being blockaded when local chieftains didn't keep their trouble makers in control, and problems continued into the 1850s, and I have a feeling it was one of the reasons the Spanish and French went into North Africa, but I stand to be corrected ? What we now know as the East Indies and the Cost of China were also hot beds of trouble, with piracy being almost endemic in the Straights off Singapore and the nearby East Indies....similarly, the coast of China was often infested with piracy and a constant problem, mostly attacking their own trade, but it wasn't unknown, if the opportunity arose, for them to attack foreign vessels in Chinese waters. But, as to which vessels carried some reasonable ordnance I don't know, it might depend on the captain, and what his plans were, but I would have thought he would have carried sufficient inexpensive guns for the crew to man....and since they all took up room, and big guns could cause a lot of damage on a vessel with light scantling, they would be limited to light cannon which you could stuff full of small shot, stones, langridge and nails etc., in preference to cannon balls, but the greater the distance, the heavier the shot required ! Guns ? But probably guns which could be easily handled by a couple of seamen, perhaps 2-3 pounders and swivels etc., but regret I don't know a lot about the ordnance side of things, although I imagine that there must have been a lot left over from the recent 20+ years of war. iSTR reading that another problem for the merchant vessels was replacing the powder once it ceased to perform the task required of it and that it wasn't unknown for cannon balls being fired from a cannon using old powder to fall into the sea well short of the target ? Plus, of course, when they entered harbour, they were required to deposit the powder in a hulked vessel set aside for that purpose, which cost money. So carrying guns could be expensive, but a case of needs must perhaps - if you didn't carry guns you might find yourself slaughtered, e.g. in the Far East or taken prisoner and used as slaves, as previously noted ? Regards Paul On Sun, 20 Oct 2013 12:11:06 +0100, "Mick O Rourke" <[email protected]> wrote: >In the period 1775 to about 1825 what type of weapons if any merchant >vessels carry ?. >I am researching an area around Mutton Island Co Clare, north of the Shannon >Estuary, Ireland. >The Island was used as a hideout and storage facility for smugglers through >the 1700s and up to 1820 when a coast guard station was built there, French >privateers were regular visitors I even have a report of a 24 gun American >Privateer 1777. >The two most famous wrecks in the area are the San Marcus, Spanish Armada >1588 and the HMS Martin 1817, but there are also a number of large merchant >vessels recorded lost in the area. >I am looking specifically at merchant vessels crossing the Atlantic both >ways and might have to dodge any of the above threats. > >Mick > >www.irishshipwrecks.ie > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message 50° 33' N, 2° 26' W http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html

On Mon, 21 Oct 2013 01:22:14 +0100, Paul Benyon <[email protected]> wrote: >Neopolitan Sorry ! That should read Napoleonic. I keep telling myself not to send mail after midnight ! P 50° 33' N, 2° 26' W http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html