Details on trigger guards and other parts of the firing mechanisms suggest these are British arms known as “Brown Bess” muskets, manufactured from the mid-18th to the early 19th century. Due to the large quantity of Brown Bess muskets manufactured, large surpluses of the arms were sold outside Britain so their use persisted for many decades after they were no longer made. Future study of recovered artifacts may confirm this identification.
Brown Bess Muskets
Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. Download larger version (jpg, 1.4 MB).

Details on trigger guards and other parts of the firing mechanisms suggest these are British arms known as “Brown Bess” muskets, manufactured from the mid-18th to the early 19th century. Due to the large quantity of Brown Bess muskets manufactured, large surpluses of the arms were sold outside Britain so their use persisted for many decades after they were no longer made. Future study of recovered artifacts may confirm this identification.

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