Traditional Muzzleloading Association
Craftsmanship => Hawks and Knives => Topic started by: Puffer on October 04, 2019, 05:14:30 PM
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Yes - SWORDS WERE VERY PRESENT in N.AMERICAN FUR TRADE !
As a Start I will focus on the primary Fur Trade Co.s in the N W ( the HBC & the NWC )
Swords were a part of the NWC/HBC Company Men's life's.
The Factor's Presentation Sword (given to HBC Factors & dignitaries)(pic #1
NWC/HBC Clerks were required process a sword (perhaps like pic #2 & 3)
The NWC/HBC men in the Co. posts had access to navel cutlasses stored in their armories (NWC = perhaps some French (pic #4), def. some Amer. (from the ones they acquired from the Pacific Fur Co. buyout.(pic #4) ) & maybe some British. ( HBC most likely British patterns.(pic #5)
Did the use their Swords ?? With the poss. exception of the "factors sword) = YES ( there are many documented accounts verifying this) (carrying while exploring {David Thompson NWC carried a sword} {HBC "Chief clerk"( Peter Fidler) confronting a NWC employee for debts owed the HBC store (53 1/2 pounds). Fidler armed himself with a pocket pistol & his sword, later the NWC person was "arrested" guarded by men with swords, as he worked off the debt.} { Drawn cutlass armed NWC men "arrest" & confine 2 local native Amer.} { HBC Gov. Robert Semple was armed with a pistol & his "big sword" , when he was killed @ the battle of 7 Oaks (HBC vs NWC + Metis allies.} {aboard the HBC SS Beaver. the traders were protected by sword armed crewmen as they traded with the natives,} et al et al !!
Surplus Mil. swords & assorted sword blades ( were packed in bbls @ York factory to be shipped W,) & were carried in the NWC & HBC posts stores as "Indian trade goods"