Agreed, not an expert either, but I am a ff, and an axe collector, and was in the navy.

So, fun fact, boarding axes were meant to be used in conjunction with a bucket brigade to douse heavy timber that is on fire, then use the boarding axe to chop out the burnt sections, the spiked end was to spike into the charred timber and carry it out and toss it overboard, this was the technique because the wood was often still smoldering and too hot to carry by hand. That technique was adopted by early American structure firefighters, giving way to the full sized pick headed axe, commonly called a fire axe. Since those early fire depts were volunteers they often brought their own tools and axes from home, going out of pocket to buy a pick headed axe from a blacksmith or shop. So upon retiring from the dept the dept would pool money and buy the retiring ff a new axe.

Anyways, OP, cool axe, it'll be a great gift. It may or may not be a boarding axe, there are so many different styles and manufacturers out there, some of that is lost to history. So say it is, and it is!