Cutlass

A  is a short, broad sabre or slashing sword, with a straight or slightly curved blade sharpened on the cutting edge, and a hilt often featuring a solid cupped or basket-shaped guard. It was a common naval weapon during the early Age of Sail.

Quotes

 * Villain, art thou the son of Tamburlaine, And fear’st to die, or with a curtle-axe To hew thy flesh, and make a gaping wound?
 * Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great, Part 2: Act 3, Sc. 2


 * A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh,
 * William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 1, Sc. 3


 * ’Twas a cutlass swipe, or an ounce of lead, Or a yawing hole in a battered head—
 * , "Derelict: The Ballad of Dead Men"
 * Champion Ingraham Hitchcock, ed., The Dead Men’s Song (1914)
 * Variant: "gaping" for "yawing"


 * ... Darkness and empty chairs, This was the port that Alexander Home Had come to with his useless cutlass-wounds And tales of Cook, and half-a-crown a day—
 * Kenneth Slessor, "Five Visions of Captain Cook" (1931)