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Originally Posted by M ELEY
I must say I am surprised at the early date of this display depicting a classic boarding axe! Had I not seen it, I would have supposed the boarding axes you spoke of from earlier periods would have lacked the spike and been more of the "battle axe" type. Awesome documentation piece as well. This once again makes me question whether some of the earlier "tomahawks" with longer butted hafts might have served in a naval capacity.
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This illustration is unique for display of large array of weapons, ship-board: boarding axe, broad axe, fire arrow, fire grenade with staff-sling, grapnel and so on. Dmitry, I don't know the exact source but it is quite famous and used worldwide in naval warfare references. It is the manuscript depicting the chace, capture and exacution at sea of one infamous, early 13th century pirate of the North Sea, Eustace "the Monk", or "Le Moin" or "The Black Monk".
kronckew, very true, yours truely is signed on an online article saying the same. Unfortunately this article is cited occasionaly by sellers on ebay with no credit, sometimes for the wrong reasons.
I had my own thoughts regarding the dolabra as a naval weapon, but the relics I'm familiar with are too large - good for sapping and trench work, cumbersome for ship board.