boat spade

plural boat spades

1. A type of spade with an extremely sharp cutting edge, used prinicpally to cut the flesh of marine animals.

   Next morning at low tide all hands went to work on the carcass with boat spades - razor-sharp implements with which they sliced off the blubber.

   1961, Tom Mead, Killers of Eden, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 41

   2 more examples

   "Tie her up, then," said he. So out we got on the ice, and dug holes with a "boat spade," and inserted large ice hooks with stout hawsers attached to them.

   1875 April 9, The Methodist Journal, Adelaide, page 1, column 2

   I have despatched hundreds of sharks, using principally a razor-sharp boat spade, with a lance-like head but also a three-pronged spear, hitting them between the neck and dorsal fin.

   1948 March 3, The Sydney Morning Herald, page 2, column 5