Just collecting militaria is not enough for me I have to study the history of the period also. Here's a snippet for you.

The Sea Service Pistol. .62cal.

Historical Background

In the age of fighting sail, all navies were famous for the patchwork of weapons used on board their ships. The Royal Navy was no different. However by the second half of the 18th century a model of sea service pistol began to dominate amongst the sailors of Britain's navy. While there were earlier versions of the sea service pistol, Britain at the time of the Seven Years War began to produce naval pistols and muskets like never before.
The sea service pistol (12 inch barrel) saw extensive use during the the French and Indian War, the American Revolution and the Nelson's adventures during the Napoleonic Wars. During the 1790s, the barrel was shortened to 9 inches making it more convenient in the tangled mêlées experienced by boarding parties. The shortened version is often referred to as the East India Co. Sea Service Pistol because they were the first to shorten it. By time of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and the War of 1812 there would have been a mixture of lengths of barrel on board ship.







By 1851 it was all change Pistols had become revolvers. Samuel Colt introduced the Colt Navy which can be seen on HMS Warrior in Portsmouth. This one from my collection is the 1851 Rebel. The reason for the brass frame is because the South were short of steel during the Civil War.



1860 arrived and yet another revision by Colt. They introduced the Colt Army model. This one from my collection is the shortened barrel model known as The Sheriff.



The American Civil war in full swing 1860. Lord Palmerston was our prime minister who was busy building and upgrading fortifications on and along the South Coast of England. The fear was an invasion from the French led by Napolian III. Palmerston also nearly took us into the Civil War on the side of the South.

This commemorative revolver is a fully engraved, nickel and gold plated 1860 Colt Army Revolver. Favoured by General George Armstrong Custer, these elegant and reliable revolvers were the workhorse of the US Cavalry from 1860 until 1875 .From my Collection




Napolionic Prisoners of War.......Yep we had them.

They were held at a huge POW camp at Norman Cross. The remains of the world's first ever purpose-built prisoner of war camp, at Norman Cross in Cambridgeshire, built in 1797 to house 7,000 Napoleonic troops.



That concludes my history lesson for today.... Thank you for reading I hope you found it interesting.

Thank you Paul very interesting indeed

Hi Mike, you are quite correct this model is a reproduction and can be viewed on the Henry Crank website. I could never afford the real thing from 1805. (I could if I won the lottery, but as I don't do the Lottery I couldn't)

Specifications

The gun has a 9" tapered barrel with a steel rammer. These reproductions are simply beautiful, complete with historic proofing markings. The .62 calibre barrel is made of tempered seamless high carbon steel (type:BS970 no.080M40) with a threaded breech plug. Each size comes with a 7 1/2 inch steel belt hook. The lock is made with strong durable springs and has a case-hardened frizzen (hammer) that throws good sparks. a cyanide case-hardening factory process is used that makes sparking both more reliable and longer lasting.

It should be remembered that these pistols were not designed to shoot any distance and would be used only after boarding or being boarded. 25 yards was ample distance for the weapon to be affective. I have used mine at the black powder ranges in Havant and can confirm that shooting over 25 to 50 yards is fairly affective with good grouping. Plenty of smoke and a big muffly bang......Awesome.



Rear Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson sporting a long sea service pistol during the Battle of St. Vincent in 1797. During this event Nelson first captured a Spanish ship then used his prize to board and capture another.

thanks paul,keep the history lessons going,much enjoying them,can't wait for more.