Armament - Page 8 of 9 - Handweapons
Bill hafts
According to the Anthony Roll inventory there should have been 50 handguns found on board the ship. Only one was recovered. Eight gunshields were also recovered. These are round, laminated, wooden shields with a short-barrelled gun firing through the boss.
More conventional weapons included pikes and bills. One iron bill head has survived, but the rest have rusted away. So many bill and pike hafts were found on the upper deck in the stern of the Mary Rose that the area became known as the "pike garden".
Many of the men were armed with a type of dagger called a ballock knife (or kidney dagger if you wish to be prim about it!) This was a personal weapon and came in a variety of styles. It was usually housed in a leather sheath. The dagger was often accompanied by two by-knives. Former Mary Rose Trust Curator, Maggie Richards, has kindly made available extracts of her paper (pdf file) on these weapons.
Ballock knife
Back to top