FLORIDA PIRATE FOLDING KNIFE

Purchased about 1980 from a dive shop/salvage/antique shop in the Naples and Marco Island area. 18th century folding knife Spanish type, 4 1/4" length with elegantly recurved point wedge section blade. The back with pivot pin and ring eye. Stable salt water recovery condition. In the 18th century, the European population of Florida and the Gulf Coast was negligible. Inhabitants were sparse, largely Indigenous Americans and runaway slaves. Some of the latter were enlisted as pirates who searched the Gulf and Caribbean for merchant ships to prey on. Merchant sailors, many of who had been shanghaied and were serving against their will, were restricted from owning knives with points to minimize the threat of mutiny. Therefore, a Spanish knife recovered in waters diveable by amateurs in the Gulf, strongly suggests a pirate provenance, as pirates abounded and frequented coastal regions for fresh water and food.