When L’Herminie was grounded on a reef off of the northwestern coast of Bermuda, it was loaded for war. Among the weapons carried on this first-rate French vessel were swords. Of the swords on board, the most common one found was the sabre de bord or the cutlass. Cutlasses were found in every ship of every navy during the age of fighting sail. They were the sword of the common sailor and provided defense for them in the event of a battle. This report will examine the origins and fate of L’Herminie and analyze the sabre de bord and how it came to be aboard L’Herminie and other ships of that time.
Martin Boucher built L’Herminie in 1824 as a first-class, sixty gun La Surveillante style frigate (University of San Diego (USD) 2017). L’Herminie was three hundred feet long and carried a crew of about five hundred sailors (Diel 2014). During the 1800’s this ship would be the equivalent of an aircraft carrier in size and importance to a country’s navy. A ship of this size and firepower would often tip the scales during a battle in their favor and could lead to victory.
For this purpose, in 1837, L’Herminie was sent to Mexico to help French forces hold on to national interests during the Mexican Revolution. It would be patrolling the coast and blockading cities such as Vera Cruz (USD 2017). Unfortunately, the ship would not make it to Mexico. In August of 1837, L’Herminie docked in Cuba and soon after, over a hundred of its crew was struck down by yellow fever (USD 2017). Correctly thinking that the ship would not be able to fight with over a fifth of men ill, the French high command ordered L’Herminie back to France. During its voyage home, the ship was caught in bad weather and the captain, Commodore Bazoche, decided to head for Bermuda to try and wait out the storm (USD 2017). Unfortunately, by the time the ship’s lookouts spotted Bermuda, they were already in danger. Caught inside the treacherous barrier reef off of Chub Head, L’Herminie was grounded on a reef. Fortunately for the crew, the wreck was in view of the British fort on the island and boats were sent out to help. All 495 officers and sailors were rescued from the ship. Since Bermuda was a British Colony, the sailors were put to work on construction projects until they were shipped back to France.
Currently the ship is located where it sank, four miles off of Ireland Island. It is about thirty-five feet down, on a sand and coral bottom (USD 2017). Most of the wood has been eaten away over time, but forty of the cannons, the anchors, the bricks that made up its kitchen, and remnants of the keel to pay testament to its importance and immense size (USD 2017, National Museum of Bermuda (NMB) 2018). It was discovered in the 1950s and 60s and the Smithsonian institute recovered some artifacts for analysis. Further examination happened in 1995 through a survey run by graduate students from East Carolina University and volunteers from the Maritime Archaeology and History Society (NMB 2018). L’Herminie has become a popular diving attraction for the island and has since become a protected area (USD 2017).
One of the artifacts recovered off of the wreck was a large concretion. After an x-ray analysis, it was revealed to be a sword hilt and the base part of the blade. Based on the shape of the guard and the width of the blade, the sword can be identified as a cutlass or a sabre de bord. This was the weapon of the common sailor when the ships came in to close combat. It is hard to tell by just the photo what model the sword is but it is known that French cutlasses did not change drastically during the early 1800s (Gilkerson 1991:80).
The French did not have a regulation sword until about 1750-60. This was in the form of a pontet simple. Several examples of this sword were found on the wreck of Machault in Canada. The pontet simple had a simple hilt design (See figure 1). It had broad shell counterguard, a large quillon and a simple knuckle guard (Bryce 1984). The grip was made of bone and cut in an octagonal shape. Finally the end of the hilt, a cast brass cap pommel balances out the sword (Bryce 1984:30).
While there was no complete blade on the swords recovered from Machault, the remnant of the blades point to having one cutting edge, which indicates that it was used for more of a cutting attack more than a stabbing (Bryce 1984:31). This style of blade would be the design of future sabre de bord because of the ease of use. After the introduction of the potent simple, France became the trendsetter for naval arms (Gilkerson 1991:79). The sword began to be used by multiple countries and arms factories in France were soon pumping out swords. The next major change in sword design would happen in 1801. It was at this time that the sabre de bord would take on the shape of the artifact found in the Bermuda National Museum. While the artifact in the museum is probably the 1833 model, the design of the hilt did not change drastically (Gilkerson 1991:80). This hilt was an iron shell guard that stretched over the entire knuckle with an octagonal iron grip and a “phygarian helmet” style pommel. The entire hilt was japanned or covered in a heavy black varnish, to discourage rusting (Gilkerson 1991:80).
The sabre de bord was made in France, but this was not always the case. Earlier swords would bear the mark of the sword smiths of Solingen, Germany (Gilkerson 1991:79). Solingen was located in northwestern Germany and was prolific sword manufacturer. They would take orders from officers in England, France and even the United States (Wolfe 2005:62). France began to try and break its reliance on Solingen around 1729 and push orders towards local sword manufacturers and other weapon smiths (Gilkerson 1991:79). Solingen would still be popular in sword manufacturing but most of the orders would be for officer swords (Wolfe 2005:62). This was allowed since officer swords had to be purchased individually while the cutlass was bought and supplied by the ship company (Wolfe 2005:25).
Every naval force on the planet used cutlasses during the age of fighting sail. From the Royal Navy to the Swedish Navy to the United States Navy, cutlasses were produced for crewman in the event of shipboard hand-to-hand combat. Unlike the boarding axe and the pike, which were only provided to part of the crew (The USS Constitution had enough axes to arm about twenty two percent of its crew), a cutlass was provided for everyman (Wolfe 2005:25). In the Royal Navy, it was ordered that every gun crew have a “boarder” that was armed with a cutlass in case they had to defend the gun from boarders (Bibbings 2016:304). One similarity that the different cutlasses had was that the design was relatively similar. One reason for this was the similarity in manufacturing centers and designs. As mentioned before, one of the major manufacturing centers was Solingen in Germany. But in the 1720’s the French government founded a French sword-making center outside of Paris, in the Klingenthal Valley (Gilkerson 1991:79). These blades became quickly copied by other nations and were introduced to their own arsenals (Gilkerson 1991:20). To help identify the manufacturer of the sword, maker’s marks were instituted and placed on the spine of the blade. This mark was made up of the founder of the blade, country and year of manufacture (Gilkerson 1991:81). The Royal Navy, while they had local sword smiths, the quality of the blades did not compare to the ones made in Solingen and so they continued to order from them and even had some German sword smiths come to England (Wolfe 2005:53). The United States was similar to both France and England because they would order swords from non-local manufacturers, but the nation they received the most weapons from was France since they were allies during the American Revolution (Wolfe 2005). Wherever the cutlass was made, the purpose of it was the same, to cut down an enemy sailor who has the same intention.
The function of the sabre de bord was to be the primary weapon to be used by enlisted sailors in the even of shipboard combat. Unlike the officer’s sword, which symbolized rank and wealth, the cutlass was a pure and simple fighting sword. It was usually cheap and mass produced. The main feature of the blade was that it had a single edge that ran the length of the blade. This is because it allowed the cutlass to be both a cut and thrust weapon. This type of sword was preferred because it did not need many years of specific training to master (Wolfe 2005). The sailor only had to do swing and stab and the sword would be deadly. It was not until the beginning of the 1800s that enlisted men were given formal combat training with the cutlass (Gilkerson 1991:69). This training taught simple slashing and blacking motions and was easily practiced with wooden cutlasses on board the ships, with the captain’s permission (Gilkerson 1991, Wolfe 2005). Even though the training was minimal, it made the sailor proficient and lethal with the cutlass.
The Sabre de Bord that was found on L’Herminie, helps show the legacy of the fighting common sailor. The cutlass would continue to be apart of the ships supplies till about the early twentieth century. In modern navies, the cutlass plays a ceremonial role as the weapon worn at the side of chief petty officers in their dress uniforms. The Sabre de bord played an important role as the weapon of choice for the enlisted sailor. Even though the sailors on L’Herminie never had to use them on their faithful trip to Mexico in 1837, if they were attacked, the sailors were ready for a fight.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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