harpagones

Updated: May 11, 2025

With respect to the question, whether the harpagones or manus ferrææ; were the same with the corvi, it appears to us that the former were of much older invention, as they certainly were much more simple in their construction; and that, probably, the engineer who invented the corvi, borrowed his idea of them from the harpagones, and in fact incorporated the two machines in one engine.

Robert Kerr - A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 : Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and : Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth : Century, By William Stevenson

The harpagones were undoubtedly grappling irons, but of such light construction that they could be thrown by manual force; but they were of no other service; whereas the corvi were worked by machinery, and served, as we have shown, not only to grapple, but to assist and protect the boarders.

Robert Kerr - A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 : Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and : Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth : Century, By William Stevenson