A proto-American boarding axe?

M ELEY · 8th January 2025, 04:11 PM

Excellent point, Jim, conerning rack numbers on boarding axes. It stands to reason that if it were a true naval boarding axe, they would have had some type of official marking and possible rack number. However, many of those shown in Gilkerson had the U.S. stamp (or British broad arrow or French manufacturing company, etc, etc, depending on the country), many didn't have rack numbers. Likewise, if it were for the merchantile fleet, it could have quite a different shape than the traditional government-issue boarding axes. Just like the private purchase cutlasses for privateers varied in shape from the traditional cutlasses of the naval powers, so too could boarding axes.

I think this might work here-

8th January 2025, 04:11 PM	#9
M ELEY Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NC, U.S.A. Posts: 2,141	Excellent point, Jim, conerning rack numbers on boarding axes. It stands to reason that if it were a true naval boarding axe, they would have had some type of official marking and possible rack number. However, many of those shown in Gilkerson had the U.S. stamp (or British broad arrow or French manufacturing company, etc, etc, depending on the country), many didn't have rack numbers. Likewise, if it were for the merchantile fleet, it could have quite a different shape than the traditional government-issue boarding axes. Just like the private purchase cutlasses for privateers varied in shape from the traditional cutlasses of the naval powers, so too could boarding axes. I think this might work here- Attached Images Last edited by M ELEY; 8th January 2025 at 04:22 PM.