One difference between English/American boarding axes and the French ones is the alignment of the languets, French ones have them fore and aft, US/UK ones port and starboard.
French naval tactics had them shoot for the rigging to disable the enemy, they expected the same in return, so their axes were designed mostly to damage control, removing broken rigging and spars, only secondarily as weapons.
English, US tactics were to go for the throat by smashing through the hull, disabling the guns and killing the crews, their ones were used for boarding and breaching barriers with hostiles behind, so had the languetes on the sides.
This carried over into their fire axes too.
Guess which is which
