Imagine you’re a 16^th or 17^th Century pirate on the Spanish Main.  You’re patrolling the waters of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico like a predator looking for his prey.  And you’ve found just such a prey; a Spanish galleon laden with treasures from Mexico.  Your objective is to take this ship intact.  If you sink it, no treasure for you and your mates.  Mind also that you’re out on your own, in the middle of the sea.  If the Spanish somehow sink you, the odds of them rescuing you are slim, and if they do you’ll swing from the yard-arm anyway.  So when you board that ship you’re going to need a weapon that is absolutely practical for the situation.  That means you’ll need a weapon that’s effective at close quarters combat and won’t be too awkward to carry in the claustrophobic confines of the deck of a sailing vessel.  Pirate swords are also known for being relatively cheap so you won’t feel too bad if it goes into the drink.  The Pirate Cutlass with Scabbard is a classic example of this level of practicality.  Apart from the brass, this weapon is as no-nonsense as it gets.  It’s shorter than a typical sword used by land-lubbers of that era, and it’s basket hand-guard does a fine job of keeping one’s hand safe from harm.  There was nothing romantic about combat on the high seas; it was very savage and failure often meant death in Davy Jones’s Locker or from the hangman’s gallows, so you wanted swords perfectly suited to the kinds of fighting a pirate was liable to face.