Accession Number

2005.004.0001

Description

A hafted iron blade from Atocha is a type of machete. This tool is generally associated with woodsmen in the clearing of brush, but on board ship the long straight blade could have served a variety of purposes, cutting, splitting, and cleaving things ranging from wood to meat. The blade mounted on a wooden handle of unknown length. It could have also served as a weapon, if needed.

Exhibition Label

Case Caption (2023):

Defending The Ship

Spain’s fleets were always in danger. English, French, and Dutch privateers, as well as pirates of all nations, lurked in the Atlantic. If they could not capture the whole fleet, they might well seize a straggler. Both the Nuestra Señora de Atocha and the Santa Margarita were guard galleons—heavily-armed ships ready to defend the flotilla against all comers.

The galleons’ cannons, capable of delivering powerful broadsides, were the first line of defense. Gunners were highly skilled. They would have started out as common sailors, but they received additional pay when they gained expertise.

Aboard the Atocha, Captain Garcia de Nodal was in charge of the ship’s company of soldiers. They were experienced infantrymen, seasoned in Spain’s endless wars, and they considered themselves superior to the sailors as a result. Despite this attitude, some of them decided to learn seamanship. While they would refuse to help with menial tasks, such as scrubbing the deck, they were often knowledgeable enough to help raise the sails. In times of battle, they might assist with the cannon before hand-to-hand fighting broke out.

 
Object Caption (2023):

Pole Arms: bill, lance heads, pike heads
Iron (c.1600), and reconstructions
Gifts of Jean Thornton, Jamestown Inc.
1986.008.1777a, 1986.008.1789a, 1986.008.0726a, 1986.008.2033, 2005.004.0001

Polearms were the infantryman’s first choice for hand-to-hand fighting. They kept the enemy at a distance, while causing maximum damage. A pike or lance could inflict a fatal wound, while the more axe-like bill could sever a limb.