Linstock
Description
Smith (1627) describes Linstocks as a carved stick around half a yard long with a spike in one end, allowing the staff to be stuck into the deck, and a fork in the other holing the match. They would have been used to fire the cannons bringing the lit match to the touchhole.
SCW820 is the end section of an Ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) handle carved in such away to give it a pommel and a grip. There is no evidence of a tang suggesting that this artefact would have been much longer and of solid wood. A square fragment of iron is present in the pommel end which may be the remains of the spike mentioned by Smith (1627).
