16th-19th century
-
Naval Dirk
A short, single- or double-edged fighting knife carried as a backup weapon by sailors, officers, and pirates alike. Compact and easily concealed, it was used in the final, desperate close-quarters moments of a boarding action. Naval officers also wore ornamental dirks as a mark of rank.
-
Boarding Pike
A long wooden shaft tipped with an iron spearhead, racked around a ship’s mainmast and issued to crew members who lacked cutlasses or firearms during boarding actions. Its reach made it effective for keeping attackers at bay while repelling boarders or for the first thrust when boarding an enemy vessel. It remained standard naval issue…
-
Scimitar
A broad term for curved, single-edged swords used across the Ottoman world and North Africa, closely associated with Barbary corsairs raiding the Mediterranean from bases like Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. The curved blade was optimized for slashing cuts in close combat. It became a stock visual and historical marker of Barbary and Ottoman-affiliated sea raiders.
-
Kilij
A distinctively curved Ottoman Turkish saber with a widened, reinforced tip (yelman) for powerful cutting strikes. Because the Barbary states operated as autonomous dependencies of the Ottoman Empire, their corsairs and naval forces carried weapons drawn from Ottoman military tradition, including the kilij. It remained a symbol of Ottoman military and naval identity for centuries.
-
Shamshir
A slender, sharply curved Persian saber adopted across the Middle East, including by corsairs operating out of Persian Gulf and Red Sea ports. Its deep curve made it a pure slashing weapon, less suited to thrusting than straight blades. It shares a common ancestry with the Ottoman kilij and Arabian saif.
-
Jambiya
A short, curved dagger with a distinctive J-shaped profile, traditionally worn at the waist across the Arabian Peninsula and Red Sea coast. Sailors and raiders operating in the Red Sea and western Indian Ocean carried it as an everyday sidearm and close-combat backup weapon. It remains a cultural icon of the region today.
-
Khanjar
A curved, double-edged dagger associated with Oman and the wider Gulf and Indian Ocean coast, worn as an everyday sidearm by sailors and traders in the region. Like the related jambiya, it served as a backup close-combat weapon and a mark of status. Indian Ocean raiders operating from Gulf and East African coasts would have…
-
Kris
A dagger or short sword with a distinctive wavy, asymmetrical blade, produced across the Malay world and carried by Moro pirates of the southern Philippines. Its irregular wound channel was believed to make injuries especially difficult to treat. It was commonly used in the close, sudden violence of a ship boarding.
-
Kampilan
A long, heavy single-edged sword with a distinctive forked pommel, favored by Moro warriors of Mindanao and the Illanun (Iranun) sea raiders. Some blades featured a spur near the tip historically associated with retrieving a severed head. Its length and weight made it a formidable weapon in boarding actions against merchant shipping.
-
Musket (Naval Pattern)
A long-barreled shoulder firearm used by naval marines, privateersmen, and pirate crews for engaging an enemy crew at range before boarding. Naval patterns were often shorter than land-service muskets for ease of handling aboard ship. Musket fire from a ship’s rigging and deck could clear an opposing crew before a boarding party went across.