Having tried several alternatives to go dipper into this Portuguese boarding axe business, i am starting to realize that hardly some precise identification may be reached and, much worse, pictures are not available.
After having addressed the Navy Museum Friends Association i was advised to contact directly the Navy Museum. Having so done, i was told that the only example in the exhibition rooms was a current axe with no back pick, of later period, and a had a promise that they will investigate this subject when time available; the person at the phone, a young sub-lieutenant, had never specifically heard or seen one of these things.
Then i decided to email a national illustrious historian and collector (and dealer) of antique arms and armor, having himself owned large quantities of axes over time, of all sorts and origins, as also having been lecturer in the Navy school and directing member of the Navy Museum Friends Association, thus a frequent visitor of the vast Museum depots.
So in a qualified point of view, the following assumptions may be made:
Any possible study on these axes is unknown.
They have never been regulated, like were Infantry or Cavalry weapons.
It was up to each Naval unit Commander to choose, order and acquire the axes in the required quantity for their crew. In a way that we can find different axe models in the various naval units of the same period.
When observing examples with labels indicating the name of the Naval unit to which they belonged, further learning has been acquired. For instance, naval axes used during the Liberal Wars (1820’s - 1830’s) had various origins. We eventually used American, French, Spanish, British, Portuguese and even Italian material.
The differences were minuscule and nobody cared to differentiate them. Generally considered mere crude tools without any decoration, they were not contemplated with mindful records.
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