13 June 2009
Blades Trilogy:
Backdoor Blades
(Backdoor Blades at Tunnel Eight, 2009)
I could go on about the slashing offense of the Pittsburgh Penguins, their energy and young legs. But I will let it go with a tepid wave of congratulation for their winning Lord Stanley’s Cup, and go on about the business of summer.
Many were scandalized at the breach of tradition and the whiff of disrespect that came two weeks ago when the graduating seniors of the Brigade of Midshipmen at Annapolis were instructed to leave their swords at home.
I was among them. I have a deep and abiding respect for tradition, and the slim, almost dainty officer’s sword is one of those quaint anachronisms that made formal dress occasions in uniform an elaborate sort of costume drama.
I was not surprised that most people just shrugged at the banning of the blades for graduation. A weapon is a weapon, after all, and the times being what they are, who needs a crowds of composed of hundreds of prospective lone wolves in proximity to the President?
What did interest me was the response from two colleagues who have a love for the saga of the blades.
In the interest of full disclosure, my Navy sword is a decorative item. My working sword, should the need come, is a Imperial Navy model, which is pedestrian in manufacture (late war) but fully functional, unlike our costume blades,
Mine does not have a family history - I had hoped the issue hilt concealed a 15th century work of art, but no, it was just a Navy Sword. It does have a personal history, having been surrendered to LT Ed Anderson, USNR, on Okinawa. He was Dad's boss years ago, and had no sons to give it to.
My short blade came from Al Shimisaki, Nisei, who worked in Army CID in Tokyo and Fukuoaka 1948-1950.
I'm told by Jack Frost (retired CAPT Frost is a sword appraiser among other things in retirement) that it is Meji Restoration in period and is a wicked triangular thing suitable for disemboweling foes or yourself if things went wrong.
Pretty colors whirl in its dark steel surface, the work of the forge and hammer revealed in delicate swirls deep in the blade.
Swords were banned in Japan when I worked there, as closely controlled as hand-guns. It was a legacy of the Occupation, and the end of the Samurai culture. The civilian authorities took great delight in disarming us in those situations where our dainty display swords came to their attention.
Blades of one kind or another have followed me all my life. A musty old Civil War saber- the real deal, even if some high school drama production had caused it to be painted with gold gilt. It cost eight dollars in the discount barrel of swords at Bannermans famous military surplus store in New York, circa 1962.
The Bannerman Brothers were still selling off case lots of material from the conflict between the several states, and that should have been a caution to me back then about the enormity of the enterprise in which I would eventually wind up spending my working life.
The old war-horse is crossed by another blade next to the back door of Tunnel Eight, just in case Repel Boarders is called away. It forms an “X” with a monster bayonet from France. It has no scabbard, and did not when it came to my hands nearly a half century ago at Silverstein’s Army-Navy store in Detroit. Actually, it fell to my brother, who was better at saving money than I was, but horse-trading over the years left it with me.
Research much later told me it is a Model 1866 Chassepot, the last French saber Bayonet.
It is not romance, precisely, though the list of places this model was used strikes me as evocative in the extreme (my thanks to C. Alan Russell for the identification of the campaigns in places that no longer exist:
* French Intervention in Mexico (1861-1867);
* Franco-Prussian War (July 19, 1870 – May 10, 1871)
* French Indo-China (1873-1874, 1882-1883);
* Sino-French War (1883-1885);
* Madagascar Wars (1883-1885, 1895);
* 1st Mandingo-French War (1883-1886);
* 1st Dahomeyan-French War (1889-1990);
* 2nd Dahomeyan-French War (1892-1894);
* Franco-Siamese War of (1893)
* 2nd Mandingo-French War (1894-1895);
* Conquest of Chad (1897-1914);
* 3rd Mandingo-French War (1898);
* Moroccan War (1907-1912);
* The Wadai War (1909-1911);
* World War I (early).
It is long enough to be a sword, long as the saber, with a wicked curve to the blade and a proud brass hilt. It was last used in earnest to fish something from behind the media cabinet. It was devastatingly effective.
At the end of the day, though, I have affection for my blades, and find the diminished passion they contain from their vanished creators to be an aid to cogent thought. Imagine being close enough to another human being in the whirl of combat to trust your life to the use of that steel?
There are those who do more than imagine. They actually use their blades as something more than decorative metaphors.
Those are the stories I will tell you about in rest of the Blade trilogy. Stand by. The office calls this placid weekend day, and I need to step out and do some business that has nothing to do with skill, or bravery.
It just needs to be done.
Copyright 2009 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com