Any pirate worth his salt can handle an old pistol, but sea dogs prize accurate rifles for their ability to lay down fire at nearly twice the distance. Shots from atop a crow’s nest or prow can pick off enemy officers and defenders before boarding. Some riflemen boast at being crack shots, but in truth most have little training. Like other sea dogs they rely on delivering a concentrated barrage from as many guns as possible.
Pirate and privateer captains know the deadly potential of rifle fire during engagements, but such guns are scarce aboard lean ships. Given the short life expectancy of most sea dogs, it falls to individual privateers to buy and maintain rifles, which frequently change hands as a rifleman’s nearest friend “inherits” the rifle in the heat of battle. Only cutthroat sea dogs survive for long, and such men enthusiastically embrace these opportunistic windfalls as an expected part of life at sea.
Though each rifleman owns and maintains his weapon, quartermasters are notoriously frugal about supplying powder from the ship’s stores. Most of the powder is reserved to ignite the ship’s valuable cannons and can’t be wasted on shots taken willy-nilly at passing sea birds or sharks. Crewmen caught firing haphazardly can expect a thorough keel-hauling. As long as a talented rifleman stays in the good graces of his officers, however, he might receive a bonus share of the loot as well as extra rum for each kill.