Buccaneer muskets

[mike mckinney]

Are their any surviving example of the fusil de buchanier? not sure if thats the correct spelling. I know there are still a few hudson valley fowlers kicking around but I have never seen an original example of buccaneer musket.
Another question is why did these weapons have such long barrels? It seems that they would be kind of akward to use onboard a ship

 

[HistoryBuff]

My understanding is that the original meaning of the French word "boucan" was a reference to a type of oven/grill used by early fur trappers around the Carribean. That form of slow cooking eventually evolved into our idea of BBQ. It had nothing to do with sea-faring thieves. But those same boucaniers, as they became known, turned to piracy at times. So the word changed maening. Perhaps those fusils de boucanier were intended for land-dwelling hunters. And, as has been discussed elsewhere on this forum, pirates took whatever they could get from captured ships. That would certainly include rifles and muskets intedend for hunters and trappers.

HistoryBuff

 

[Henry]

Genuine fusils boucaniers ? maybe about half a dozen
in the world today ? One or two in British museums
at least two in private collection in France and
probably one in an American private collection.

Those guns were made in the XVII th cent ,
by the time of the F&I war they were still in use but
out of fashion. Cheap versions were still made
in Li

 

[Wes/Tex]

Check out "Colonial Frontier Guns" by T.M. Hamilton. The "Aries" gun is on pages 51 & 52; the "Tower Of London" gun is on page 53; the "Baird" (female) gun on page 54. There are close up pictures of recovered furniture pieces on pages 55 & 56 and an illustration of "French Officers Of The Company Of The Pacific With Buccaneer Guns" on page 57. The two butt stock styles are called "male" & "female" and the story is that on was traded for female slaves and male slaves for the other. This sounds rather thin to me...always the doubter!