whale blubber flencing blade

After seeing Blunderbuss' very interesting and all informing posting of a whale harpoon, I remembered a maritime tool that I acquired on a trip to New London Ct. when my youngest son was in the silent service (submarine duty) and stationed at the sub pens there.
Being an avid "stuff" collector, My wife and I stopped at a local collector fair that was set-up along the road in a big parking lot.
Now, I know nothing about nautical items, being a PA farm boy, but I found it very interesting to see this tool, that supposedly was used to cut the blubber off of the whales. Maybe it was used to cut the blubber into chunks to better fit in to the rendering boilers. I really don't know.
It looks authentic as it was hand forged and made strong to be used hard.
The blade is about 12" wide and 6" deep with a socket forged into the end to accept a handle. The handle is only 3 1/2' long, so, I don't know it was added some time after it was used. I would expect the handle to be longer. There again I am ignorant concerning maritime items.
Maybe somebody out there can shed some light on this interesting tool. I left the tag on the tool. It is listed as a flencing tool.