Stink Pots

Earthen jars containing gunpowder, rosin, pitch and handgrenades, and used to throw on an enemy's deck. Upon striking the vessel the hand-grenades explode,

setting fire to the inflammable compound, which spreads about. The stink pot probably originated with the Chinese, who used them long before they were known to Europeans. The term stink pot came from the offensive odor which arose when one of these pots broke, as the Chinese always charged theirs with assafcetida. The fetid stench which this gave cause to was at times so overpowering that the crew of an attacked vessel succumbed to an intense nausea, and fell a prey to the Chinese pirates alongside.