bell-muzzle

Updated: May 26, 2025

They were most useful in a hand-to-hand encounter, as with footpads, or boarders; but they were useless at more than ten paces. A variation from them was the hand-cannon or blunderbuss, with a bell-muzzle, which threw rough slugs or nails.

John Masefield - On the Spanish Main: Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien.