When Guns Don't Fire

In my last post, I wrote about how flintlocks work. Today I will give details about how they don’t work.

Although they are sturdy, they are not reliable. In the mid-1700’s the British Army did a study, and found that a gun fired in the field had an 85% chance of actually going off. That leaves a 15% chance that when you pulled the trigger, nothing was going to happen. What got in the way?

If the powder isn’t dry, nothing will happen. High humidity might be enough to keep a spark from igniting the flash pan. Or the flint might not be sharp enough or set at the proper angle. To get a good spark, the flint needed a sharpened strike point. Flints were purchased with correct faces, but flint is a rock, which chips and breaks, so the flint must be cared for, re-sharpened, and replaced regularly.

Another problem was that the frizzen strike plate might not be the best grade of steel. These were individually produced parts, and if the frizzen was not properly tempered, the spark would be inferior or nonexistent, and might not ignite the powder.

Holding the pistol incorrectly could prevent firing. You couldn’t “go gangsta” and hold your flintlock sideways. Gravity needed to guide the spark into the flash pan. Holding the weapon upside down made it useless, and might spill the powder from the flashpan, preventing firing altogether until the pan was refilled.

Rain reduced chances of success. Wind might blow the spark out. If the touchhole had carbon buildup, or the load had not been tamped down properly, or the flint was not positioned correctly, then the pistol would not fire. It is a telling fact that the makers of pistols did not also provide holsters. They made wooden cases for their product.

But pirates loved pistols, and evidence surfaces that many pirates collected them. Pistols were terror weapons. They were loud. They made smoke and inspired chaos. Pistols were, moreover, the weapon of a “gentleman,” and such a weapon in the hands of a dirty, uneducated criminal sent a message that rules of society were being turned upside down. And setting the world on its ear was a pirate’s goal.

Unlike navy pistols, pirate weapons were private property. This was important, since each pistol had its own individual quirks, and close study of it could reveal the way to produce maximum reliability. If some weapons responded to use of a particular grade of flint, or dropped a spark more reliably when held at a slight angle, the longtime owner would know. The rules of most pirate ships required weapons to be cleaned, maintained and ready for use at all times, and circumstances indicate the pirates cared for their weapons enthusiastically.

Pirates also modified pistols to suit them. For example, the smooth hardwood grips made to appeal to gentleman purchasers did not work well for a pirate, whose hands might be sweaty, wet, or covered in blood. Pirates wrapped their pistol grips in cloth, favoring silk ribbon for the purpose.

They also carried as many guns as possible. Though belt holsters had not been invented, pirates used over-the-shoulder bandoliers, rigged to carry up to three weapons. Two of these provided six shots. Another pirate invention was a sort of V-shaped neck-bandolier, also holding six weapons, and featuring a pouch in front for powder and shot.

If this sort of fancy leather- work wasn’t available, braces of pistols were tied together by the butts and simply slung around the neck. Three pairs were about all a person could carry, and may have been the conceptual ancestor of the six-shooter. More pistols could be crammed into coat pockets, More is better, especially when you have only an 85% chance of getting a shot off.

Those Funny-Looking Pirate Pistols

As I was watching a pirate era movie with a friend, she kept commenting on the odd guns that pirates used. It’s true, the pistols in pirate movies look very little like a modern gun. But their strange appearance is a true example of form following function.

Firearms from the Golden Age of Piracy worked using a mechanism called a “flintlock,” This followed the “matchlock” and was the highest form of firearm technology for over a hundred years.

Matchlocks had set off the powder charge in a musket with a simple burning fuse, the “match.” Before going into battle, the match was lit, and as long as it burned the gun could be fired by pulling the trigger mechanism, which brought the slow-burning match into contact with black powder. (an example of a matchlock can be seen in Disney’s animated movie Pocahontas. I especially like the part where John Smith blows on the burning match to make it flare.)

Obviously, carrying around a device with a burning fuse attached had its limitations. I have never seen an example of a matchlock pistol. The need to keep a match burning precluded the design of a hand weapon. Only with the rise of flintlocks could a pocket-sized gun be conceived.

All black powder weapons carry the same sort of load. A measured amount of black powder is put into the barrel of the gun. This could be drizzled in from a powder horn, or inserted via a pre-measured “cartridge” of powder wrapped in paper. Pre-made cartridges looked much like packages of the candy  “Smarties” only wrapped in cigarette paper, not cellophane.

After the load of powder came the ball, or shot. Since the machining tolerances of the time were not close  – gun barrels were handmade and hand tempered, and shot was frequently hand-cast by the shooter (using primitive two-part molds and lead or pewter heated in the fireplace,) the round shot for the pistol would not fit snugly into the barrel. To get around this, the ball was wrapped in a piece of cloth called the “patch” which ensured a properly snug fit. All of this was pushed down the barrel using a ramrod. Conveniently, both muskets and pistols from the time carried a ramrod under the barrel.

Now we come to the funny-looking part of the gun. The “lock” was the firing mechanism, consisting of the trigger, the hammer, the flash pan, and the frizzen. This was attached to the right-hand side.

The flash pan held a small amount of powder, and was filled after the barrel was loaded. This powder met the load in the barrel through a small opening called the touch hole. When the powder in the pan caught fire, the touch hole carried that fire into the barrel, setting off the main charge. The gun was, literally, “fired” in that fire was put to the powder, causing an explosion.

The frizzen was the ingenious thing. One half of it was a cover for the flash pan, protecting the powder from getting wet of simply falling out. The other half rose in at a right angle to form a vertical strike plate.

The hammer contained a screw-operated holder for a piece of flint. When the trigger was pulled, the hammer fell and hit the flint against the steel strike plate. Flint hitting steel made a spark, and the force of the hammer also opened the frizzen pan, dropping that spark into the flash pan’s powder.

The flash powder ignited with a “fissst” sound,  producing a cloud of white smoke the size of a grapefruit. A split second later, the pistol’s main charge went off with a “pang!” throwing a round lead shot of approximately 55 caliber, and creating a cloud of white smoke the size of an end table. A small stream of smoke shot out the touch hole. Pistols were never reloaded during a fight. It took too long. To make up for this, the manufacturer thoughtfully capped the pistol’s butt  with metal, providing better functionality when it was used as a club.

Flintlock technology was simple enough that the weapons could be repaired in the field, and the weapons saw service into the Civil War. In Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Johnny Depp carries a genuine three hundred year old flintlock pistol, still capable of killing someone.

Handle with care.