Boarding axes

[capnwilliam]

How many mates carry or pack a boarding axe as part of their kit?

And, what were such axes used for aboard ship?

Capt. William

[El Pirata]

NOt me but thinkin bout buyin one...

[Stynky Tudor]

Arr the same goes fer me, it just be a matter of time. . .

[Darkmalkin]

I have one that's an axe and AND pistol. Ye shoots yer quarry, and then chops his head off. This saves havin' ta reload inna thick of battle.

[Hawkyns]

Sounds like that could be a mite rough on yer mainspring!

I've considered one but there's a couple of issues. Most of me time is spend in the 16th century and I'm not sure what the earlier ones look like. Second, they look great around a camp and all, but the ones I've hefted would be a bloody horse to carry about. 2 pound head and a 24 inch helve don't make for a light throwin' hawk.

Hawkyns

[Capt. Westyn Elizabeth Roberts]

Boarding axes were used to chop heads and grappling lines, I believe. Also, you could get a smaller version, if you don't want to heft the usual large size. Ebay is a good source for cheap weaponry. Or just get one from your hardware store and wrap the handle in leather. You also need to beat the crap out of it...to make it look old. A hammer will do. In a pinch, it'll look just as fine.

Just a suggestion from your friendly neighborhood bargain-hunter.

Capt. WE Roberts

[Capt. Flint]

I have a small boarding ax. They were primarily used for cutting grappling lines. They were also used a great deal for exactly what they are called. Baording. Ship fighting was close combat. A good boarding ax was a small compact weapon with a powerful and deadly force. Handled properly, according to the history books, it was every bit as deadly as a sword.

[the Royaliste]

I carry a brass head, replica sand cast early 1750's French Iroquois trade axe, as it matches me Ship well, not very heavy, seven inch head, hand carved and planed Ipe' hardwood haft.....mebbee 20 Yankee frogskins, tops..........

[Hawkyns]

I've got hawks, round poll, hammer poll and spike back. All have standard 16-18 inch helves. Not one of them would be any good for cutting a heavy line, let alone a hawser. You need the weight and length for that. So I don't know. I also wonder about the heavy spike back. It's said it was to help climb the side of a ship, but I got to wonder if that's real. Anybody have primary source documentation on that?

Also, anybody who has 'Boarders Away' vol 1 (mine's still on order). Does he give a date for the earliest boarding axe as a purpose designed weapon?

Hawkyns

[Hawkyns]

I have a small boarding ax. . Ship fighting was close combat. A good boarding ax was a small compact weapon with a powerful and deadly force. Handled properly, according to the history books, it was every bit as deadly as a sword.

I've done a bit of fighting with an axe in the left hand. Good for parrying, hooking your opponent closer, and, of course, bashing the bugger's head in. In a fight against a blade weapon, though, the helve gets pretty chewed up and is in significant danger of breaking. Most of the true boarding axes I've seen have langets to stop this (the metal plates that extend down the helve from the head). All this adds weight, which is useful for cutting line, but a real bugger for carrying all day.

Hawkyns

[Captian Wolfy Wench]

I don' own a boardin' axe yet, but maybe I shall later, although I be much happier carryin' me flintlock n' cutlass and leave me crew to tha' axes. Pyrates with boardin' axes are quite shexy.

Imma bit fuzzy on me history 'ere, but methinks that tha' boardin' axes were used when pirates boarded other ships. Not only could they be weapons in close range battle, but good plunderin' pirates needed to chop down doors when boardin' enemy ships, or for cuttin' the lines and ropes. General destruction n' mayhem, says I.

Captain Wolfy Wench

[Black Deacon]

I have one. Swiss War Axe. Made by Chris poor. I'll post a pic later.

[Red Maria]

Odd this subject has come up. A friend asked me where she could get a boarding axe. Does anyone know?

[Dorian Lasseter]

I've got hawks, round poll, hammer poll and spike back. All have standard 16-18 inch helves. Not one of them would be any good for cutting a heavy line, let alone a hawser. You need the weight and length for that. So I don't know. I also wonder about the heavy spike back. It's said it was to help climb the side of a ship, but I got to wonder if that's real. Anybody have primary source documentation on that?

Also, anybody who has 'Boarders Away' vol 1 (mine's still on order). Does he give a date for the earliest boarding axe as a purpose designed weapon?

Hawkyns

Aye Master Hawkyns,

Here's a few lines outta "Borders Away!" about th' Boarding Axe...

"Waepon and tool, the axe was carried to sea by sailors in time before memory, and there it has remained into the present as the ship's fire axe, still looking very much like its direct parent, the boarding axe, and perhapsa great grandparent-a kind of Viking axe. The term 'boarding axe' first appears in the 17th century naval documents, an apparent attachment of the nautical verb 'board' (to board or to go aboarda craft; of 15th century origin; probably from the original Anglo-Saxon word 'bord', meaning side) to the word axe, another Anglo-Saxon word, presumed to have descended from the Greek 'axine'.

.... The boarding axe's distinguishing characteristics (primarily a pick head opposing an axe head, and a size and heft greater than a hatchet's and less than a felling axe's) evolved logically along with the sailing warship."

It was used to but out fires, hack away ruined rigging, used as a hook to drag away heavy lines, hooking into chain plates and assisting the climb up a ships side, cutting away grappling lines...

"The famous 'axe ladder' would seem to have been the invention of a hired editor trying to explain how axes were used for climbing ships. In any case, this student has found no actual eyewitness account of such a thing as an axe ladder ever having happened."

And it goes on.....

[Andre LeClerc]

How many mates carry or pack a boarding axe as part of their kit?

And, what were such axes used for aboard ship?

Capt. William

Captn,

I must confess, I have a boarding axe, but don't carry it when I go to fandango's---came by and orginal, (or so they said) from another fellow collector---he and I have discussed dang near everything on shipboard, and military from 1500 to Present day---and about the only thing we can figure out, is them axes was used for cutting cordage loose, etc.

He being British, argued that they might have been used for fighting, and this one is just a little larger than a standard size hawk--so could be---dont really have the consumante answer. Kind of like the elusive 1832 Dragoon saddle, we know was used, but none seems to have survived the long trek to California.

Besides, me rapier pulls me pantaloons down as it is, so I dont need another hang me down, to hang me down? LOL

Andre LeClerc

Another week as the

semi disputed master

of the St. Vitas Dance

[John Maddox Roberts]

I read long ago (I no longer remember where) that boarding axes were used by boarders to cut up the rigging and steering gear of the boarded ship. The idea being that if the boarders were driven back to their own ship or a warship hove over the horizon and they had to make a fast getaway, the other ship couldn't give chase. If the ship was carried successfully, the captured crew could always be set to repair the damage.