The iron head of an axe with the top part of the wooden shaft (the rest had been sawn off) from the 1845 Northwest Passage Expedition led by Sir John Franklin. It is inscribed with a broad arrow but the maker's name is illegible.

The axe head was recovered by the US expedition under Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka between 1878-1880. It is described as 'Item 7. Ship's axe found in a native cache in Wall Bay' in the 1881 catalogue of items that he sent back to Britain in 1881 [TNA, ADM 1/6600].

Schwatka's expedition was returning from Cape Felix. On around 12 July 1879 they passed close to Cape Maria Louisa on the west coast of King William Island and an Inuit boy Awanak located an Inuit cache of Franklin expedition items. This included 'a ship carpenter's ax[e] also stamped with the royal arrow' [Schwatka, page 84].

Heinrich Klutschak reported that an Inuk had told the expedition that he had cached these items under a rock for lack of transport but was unable to find them when he came back [Klutschak, page 94].

The axe was displayed at the Royal Naval Museum, Greenwich, in 'Case 3, No 2. Head of a ship's axe'. It was also in Display 14 at the Royal Naval Exhibition at Chelsea in 1891.