M1848 Naval & Postal pistol
Why do things simple when you can do them in a Swedish dominated Norway with a French descendants son as king? The Norwegian merchant fleet was big, probably # 2 or 3 in the world by the mid 1800’s. Norway had a fairly aggressive army preparing for war – against Sweden. Our navy? Well, it did not belong under the Defense ministry, but the Postal ministry! The navy had next to nothing in common with the army, including politics and weapons!
The M1848 navel (and postal) pistol came in two versions: With or without sights. Nobody knows what pistols were to be used where – or if there was any system at all in regards to the sights or no sights. To complicate things slightly more, nobody has been able to crack the serial number code. How many pistols were really made of the M1848, and of these, how many landed where?
The picture shows three pistols with sights and production years 1848, 1849 and 1850. It seems the numbers start at 1 at least as often as every year – and what about those without sights? Are they in the same number series?
The M1848 is not too difficult to get hold off, but as of today it is not possible to say if it is a naval or a postal pistol or how many were made of it.