 |
The Cane as a Weapon is a book by Andrew Chase Cunningham presenting a concise system of self defense making use of a walking stick or umbrella. It was first published in 1912 in the United States.
| |
The Cane as a Weapon is a book by Andrew Chase Cunningham presenting a concise system of self defense making use of a walking stick or umbrella. It was first published in 1912 in the United States.
Andrew Chase Cunningham was born in New York. He attended the United States Naval Academy from 1874 through 1881, during which time he served aboard the U.S.S. Shenandoah. After graduating, he was assigned to the training ship U.S.S. Saratoga and continued to serve in the United States Navy until he resigned in 1884. He would later rejoin the Navy in 1898 as a civil engineer and was granted the relative rank of Lieutenant. In 1903 he was assigned to the United States Naval Academy, where he remained for two years until 1905. He would subsequently serve at the Bureau of Yards and Docks as well as the Norfolk Navy Yard. Cunningham would continue to work for the Norfolk Navy Yard until 1913, when he was assigned to the Portsmouth Navy Yard. His final assignment was for the radio station at Point Isabel, Texas in 1915, a position he held until he was placed on sick leave in 1916. Andrew Chase Cunningham would die a year later on January 13 in Washington, D.C., with the relative rank of Lieutenant Commander. [1]
A participant in the sport of fencing, he was the president of the Washington, D.C. Fencing Organization and in 1906 he wrote a Naval drill manual entitled Sabre and Bayonet . In April 1912, Cunningham directed a large fencing tournament, featuring competitors from throughout New York City, Boston and Washington, D.C.. Cunningham's fencing scrapbook of his time serving at the United States Naval Academy is currently held in the academy's archival collections. [1]
Cunningham was made an associate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1891 and on October 3, 1894, was made a full member. [2]
The Cane as a Weapon, Cunningham’s second book, consisted of eighteen pages of text and twelve photographs. It is thought to be the only self-defense manual of its type to be produced in the United States during this period.
Although several European authors had previously produced books and articles on the subject of self-defense with a walking cane, the Cunningham cane defense system was unique in several respects.
Of the three basic guard positions that he advocates, two involve holding the cane with the tip pointed towards the ground. These positions have the advantage of appearing to be non-threatening and also make it difficult for an opponent to seize the defender’s weapon, unlike the more orthodox, fencing-based guards advocated by some other writers. They also serve as positions of invitation, exposing the defender’s head and torso to attack while providing the opportunity to counter such attacks with powerful, upward-sweeping parries.
The third basic guard position, which Cunningham refers to as the double-handed guard, was also featured in several previous works on cane defense. However, his system places an unusual emphasis upon this type of guard, stressing the augmented strength of attacks and defenses and the possibility of quick, snapping attacks and parries to be executed with either hand. Cunningham's advocacy of this position might have been due to his previous experience at bayonet fencing. The double-handed guard also facilitates powerful close-range jabs and "bar strikes" with the portion of the cane held between the defender’s hands.
The author pays special attention to the various different types of counter-attacks, defining the action of performing a cut or strike according to the direction, height, target and "character" of the action. The latter are defined as snap, half-arm, full-arm or swinging cuts. He also distinguishes between two types of "stabbing" blow with the cane, the jab and the thrust.
The Cunningham system is ambidextrous and the cane is frequently passed from hand to hand during the defensive sequences that are described and illustrated in the book. Defenses are generally in the form of counter-attacks to the assailant's weapon or to the weapon-wielding hand and targets for counter-attack include the head, throat, midsection, hands, elbows, knees and shins. Instructions are offered for self-defense against multiple opponents, grappling and boxing attacks as well as against attackers armed with knives and sticks.
The book also includes a series of thirty-seven written descriptions of defensive exercises.
The Cane as a Weapon was first published on or around 1912 in the United States; some works that mention the book list release dates as late as 1914. [3] [4] The book was put out by The Army & Navy Publishing Company, which continued to publish the book after Cunningham's death. [5]
In 2006, an expanded edition was published through lulu.com.
The Saskatoon Daily Star reviewed the book, stating that "personally, I am inclined to the belief that if the attacking party shows ability with his fists, it would be well to drop the cane and run like the divil." [6]
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consist of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. All six armed services are among the eight uniformed services of the United States, along with the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps.
Arthur William Radford was an admiral and naval aviator of the United States Navy. In over 40 years of military service, Radford held a variety of positions including the vice chief of Naval Operations, commander of the United States Pacific Fleet and later the second chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Washington Navy Yard (WNY) is a ceremonial and administrative center for the United States Navy, located in Washington, D.C. It is the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy, situated along the Anacostia River in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Southeast D.C.
USS Santee was a wooden-hulled, three-masted sailing frigate of the United States Navy. She was the first U.S. Navy ship to be so named and was one of its last sailing frigates in service. She was acquired by the Union Navy at the start of the American Civil War, outfitted with heavy guns and a crew of 480, and was assigned as a gunboat in the Union blockade of the Confederate States. She later became a training ship then a barracks ship for the U.S. Naval Academy.
Fort Pickens is a historic pentagonal United States military fort on Santa Rosa Island in the Pensacola, Florida, area. It is named after American Revolutionary War hero Andrew Pickens. It is the largest of four forts built to defend Pensacola Bay and its navy yard. The fort was completed in 1834 and was one of the few forts in the South that remained in Union hands throughout the American Civil War. It remained in use until 1947. Fort Pickens is included within the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and as such, is administered by the National Park Service.
The Judge Advocate General's Corps, also known as the "JAG Corps" or "JAG", is the legal arm of the United States Navy. Today, the corps consists of a worldwide organization of more than 730 commissioned officers serving as judge advocates, 30 limited duty officers (law), 500 enlisted members and nearly 275 civilian personnel, all serving under the direction of the Judge Advocate General of the Navy.
Singlestick is a martial art that uses a wooden stick as its weapon. It began as a way of training soldiers in the use of backswords. Canne de combat, a French form of stick fighting, is similar to singlestick play, which also includes a self-defense variant with a walking stick.
Stick-fighting, stickfighting, or stick fighting, is a variety of martial arts which use simple long, slender, blunt, hand-held, generally wooden "sticks" for fighting, such as a gun staff, bō, jō, walking stick, baston, arnis sticks or similar weapons. Some techniques can also be used with a sturdy umbrella or even with a sword or dagger in its scabbard.
A swordstick or cane-sword is a cane containing a hidden blade or sword. The term is typically used to describe European weapons from around the 18th century. But similar devices have been used throughout history, notably the Roman dolon, the Japanese shikomizue and the Indian gupti.
A pistol sword is a sword with a pistol or revolver attached, usually alongside the blade. It differs from a rifle with a bayonet attached, in that the weapon is designed primarily for use as a sword, and the firearm component is typically considered a secondary weapon designed to be an addition to the blade, rather than the sword being a secondary addition to the pistol. In addition, the two components of these weapons typically cannot be separated, unlike most bayonets mounted on rifles.
George Wallace Melville was a United States Navy officer, engineer and Arctic explorer.
Alfred Austell Cunningham was an American aviator and a United States Marine Corps officer who became the first Marine Corps aviator and the first director of Marine Corps Aviation. His military career included service in the Spanish–American War, World War I, and U.S. operations in the Caribbean during the 1920s.
USS Reina Mercedes (IX-25) was an unprotected cruiser of the Spanish Navy which was captured in Cuba in 1898 by the U.S. Navy during the Spanish–American War. She was refurbished and used by the U.S. Navy as a non-self-propelled receiving ship at Newport, Rhode Island, and subsequently as a detention vessel and barracks ship for the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, until 1957.
Canne de combat is a French combat sport. As weapon, it uses a canne or cane designed for fighting. Canne de combat was standardized in the 1970s for sporting competition by Maurice Sarry. The canne is very light, made of chestnut wood and slightly tapered. A padded suit and a fencing mask are worn for protection.
Seacoast defense was a major concern for the United States from its independence until World War II. Before airplanes, many of America's enemies could only reach it from the sea, making coastal forts an economical alternative to standing armies or a large navy. Substantial fortifications were built at key locations, especially protecting major harbors. Seacoast defense also included submarine minefields, nets and booms, ships, and, later, airplanes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers played the central role in constructing fixed defenses, but all of the armed forces participated.
Hispanics in the United States Navy can trace their tradition of naval military service to men such as Lieutenant Jordi Farragut Mesquida, who served in the American Revolution. Hispanics, such as Seaman Philip Bazaar and Seaman John Ortega, have distinguished themselves in combat and have been awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration of the United States. Hispanics have also reached the top ranks of the navy, serving their country in sensitive leadership positions on domestic and foreign shores. Among those who have reached the highest ranks in the navy are Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy, of Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jewish descent, who participated in the War of 1812 as an assistant Sailing master; Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, for whom the rank of admiral in the U.S. Navy was created during the American Civil War; and Admiral Horacio Rivero, who led the navy during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The United States Marine Corps's Advanced Base Force was a coastal and naval base defense force that was designed to set up mobile and fixed bases in the event of major landing operations within, and beyond, the territorial United States. Established in the beginning of the 20th century, the Advanced Base Force was the United States' first combined task force built on the concept of the Marine Corps' traditional role in expeditionary warfare. The slow development of the advanced base force played a significant role in the controversy over the removal of the ships' guards in 1908–1909.
Claiborne Jay Walker was an American fencer and naval Lieutenant. Walker competed in the individual and team sabre events at the 1920 Summer Olympics. Walker entered the United States Naval Academy in 1917 where he received various awards as a fencer. Walker died aged 27 of a gunshot wound while serving overseas in Shanghai, China.
Julius Augustus Furer was a highly decorated naval architect and an engineer in the United States Navy with the rank of rear admiral. During World War II, Furer served as coordinator of research and development and the senior member of the National Research and Development Board.
Alfred Walton Hinds was a United States Navy captain who served as the 17th Naval Governor of Guam. His early naval service included serving as Assistant Engineer aboard USS Texas, the United States Navy's first battleship, where he was reprimanded for an accident aboard in 1896. In 1911, Hinds joined the staff of the United States Naval Academy, heading the Department of Marine Engineering and Naval Construction, writing a textbook on the subject while there.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)