The predecessor to the boarding axe was indeed the trade spiked tomahawk axes of the early fur trade. Gilkerson mentions this, as does Hartzler's volume on frontier axes. I've even seen a true N. American Type III boarding axe that had old Native American brass tacks and wire branding that was the real deal (meaning, it started out life as a naval piece, but somewhere along the lines, got traded out as a tomahawk).
Sorry, David. I was not trying to create a stir, nor was I going to openly name that source here-
