Dear Conchlers,

Last Sunday I asked about some information concerning the use of Strombus
gigas as a weapon in Florida.
Hitherto I haven't had any reaction (neither on the list, nor private) so I
would like to ask it once more. The origianal message reads as follows:

In a recent paper published in the "Correspondentieblad" of the Dutch
malacological Society (no. 314, p. 68) there is a short paper by Mr. A.D.J.
Meeuse on the use of Strombus gigas as a weapon. The paper is in Dutch. Its
use  is described as follows (translation by me):
" (…) With the aid of an anvil, flat stone, hammer, crowbar or pair of
nippers, shell matrerial was removed from a large conch shell around the
aperture and removed from the whorls, that only the central axis remained.
The lower, thicker part gave enough grip to clasp it and the upper, thin
part ending in a sharp point made it a tremendous pointed weapon, wich was
even more effective as the thin, pointed part broke off and remained inside
the wound. These conchdiggers [sic] were used to get rid of adversaries or,
in love affairs, a rival.
This is all past now, but the daggers are still made and put for sale at
the Keys at the souvenir shops."

I was wondering of some of you might have some more information. I could
find no reference to this use in Orr, K.S. & C.J. Berg Jr. , 1987 (The
Queen Conch). Personally, I could imagine that especially Lambis (Harpago)
sp. could be used as daggers, even without breaking off parts of the shell.

Gijs C. Kronenberg