1715 Rapier/Sword Guards, Etc. 

 

I recently tried to find what happened to a cupreous alloy rapier handle/guard I recovered on the Douglas Beach site while diving for Bob Weller back in the late 80's. I only saw it briefly that day as it then went to the lab and I never got a photo of it (guard was bent and had decorative markings). I contacted the Florida Division of Historical Resources to see if they had received it in their division. They were very helpful and verified that they did and sent me some photos.

 

We recovered other rapier guards that year and myself and Bob each got a silver butterfly guard in our division. I'm attaching a couple photos of the cupreous handle the State sent along with a photo of a beautiful complete decorated silver hilt/handle/guard they also sent me that was recovered on Corrigan's site and which is on loan now at the Pirates Museum in St. Augustine (1st 3 pix below). I don't know who recovered that one but it's the most complete I've seen from the fleet.

 

First two pix of the cuprous guard/hilt, 3rd of the Corrigan's find, 4th is the two silver guards we recovered before conservation (one large, one smaller), 5th  is of Bob's that he had restoration expert Doug Armstrong put together using the guard, a silver wrapped handle Bob had from the wreck of the Margarita, and a repro pewter rapier blade Armstrong copied from one recovered from the Maravillas, 6th is my amateur repro handle to the one I got in the division, and last is what an x-ray showed to be an encrusted intricate guard that was left as-is.