THESE MACHETES DATE FROM the mid-late 19th Century and were produced by a number of sword makers in both Britain and Europe. They are not Royal Navy issue but are thought to have been carried on board merchant ships alongside commercially made cutlasses. Most follow a standard style, including the use of horn or wood in the grips, either in slab or ribbed form. Blades are made from thin steel and are wide, sometimes multi-fullered and with pronounced swollen and flared points. The Steamer Company motif is frequently encountered on machete blades of this type and it it thought that this is another trading name for Robert Mole and Sons of Birmingham, a prolific supplier of swords to the British Army and Navy during the 19th Century.
These machetes were not used for fighting and were probably more of an on-board utility tool. Some examples are stamped with either “GR” or “VR” royal cyphers that might indicate that they had official sanction to be used. Most machetes still surviving have lost their original scabbards (with some probably never issued with them) but would originally have been leather and brass or steel mounted.
© Harvey Withers Military Publishing, 2024