There was plenty of dangerous stuff aboard a pirate ship. Pirates liked short swords called cutlasses and scary boarding axes; both were easy to handle on crowded decks. Pikes were long staffs with points and, sometimes hooks on the end. Pistols were okay for shooting, but there was no time to reload, still they were heavy, good for smashing heads. Muskets were used by sharpshooters placed high in the rigging; they aimed at the prize ship's captain and at the men who were steering the prize. Sometimes they used broad mouthed shotguns called blunderbusses.Pirate vessels didn't want to trade broadsides with a well armed ship. Pirate cannon were aimed to cripple the prize without hurting it too much, pirates ransomed or sold back prizes for a lot of money. Cannons fired several kinds of shot, some meant to put holes in the prize's hull, some meant to cut up the prize's rigging so she couldn't sail away.
Some murderous shot grape (the size of ping pong balls )and canister (musket balls) that was meant to "sweep the decks" so the fighting sailors could get their prize. Bloody work. Pirates weren't as bloodthirsty as their legends would have you believe but let's be truthful. They were violent, wicked criminals.
GRAPNELS looked like four-pronged anchors. They were thrown to catch at a prize's rigging and haul it alongside so the pirates could get aboard.
CANNONS were dangerous to everyone, even the pirates who fired them. Even small cannon were extremely heavy. They were pulled up into the gunport with pulleys on both sides. The elevation (the up-and-down angle) was adjusted with wedge-shaped quoins. Cannon were aimed left or right by turning them with long levers called crows (our crowbars are the same kind of thing). To prime the cannon to get it ready to fire, a priming wire was thrust down the vent to put a hole in the bag of powder, then the vent was filled with fine powder from a powder horn. The gun crew (four or five men) stepped back, and the gunner waited for the vessel to roll up on the waves. At the height of the roll, he dabbed the slow match (a long-burning cord) smoldering on the linstock against the powder in the touch hole. Boom! When it was fired, the cannon would recoil, shoot back fast with terrible force. Anyone in the way could be killed. The recoil was stopped by the heavy rope breeching.
Reloading was tricky. The hot barrel had to be wiped out with a wet swab to get rid of any glowing bits of powder or fabric that could ignite the new powder while it was being thrust down the barrel with a rammer. Cloth wads were pushed into the barrel to make a tight seal, then the shot was rammed tight. The cannon was pulled back up into place and primed for the next shot. Occasionally a cannon simply blew up, killing the whole crew.
