The Brass Monkey: Myth or Fact?

Oregon Magazine ^ | August 4, 2002 | Larry Leonard

[WaterDragon]

(Our pal, Camber, the old son-of-a-gun, found this one in his email box. It's been circulating on the net. Is it myth?)

In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannon fired round iron balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. But how to keep them from rolling about the deck....?(snip)

Click here to read complete article.

[Khepera]

I wish I could have a little of the cold weather that could freeze the balls off of a brass monkey today. It's too hot .

[Bogey78O]

The Brass Monkey is real! 1980s rap centered around it.

[Bowana]

It has often been claimed that the "brass monkey" was a holder or storage rack in which cannon balls (or shot) were stacked on a ship. Supposedly when the "monkey" with its stack of cannon ball became cold, the contraction of iron cannon balls led to the balls falling through or off of the "monkey." This explanation appears to be a legend of the sea without historical justification. In actuality, ready service shot was kept on the gun or spar decks in shot racks (also known as shot garlands in the Royal Navy) which consisted of longitudinal wooden planks with holes bored into them, into which round shot (cannon balls) were inserted for ready use by the gun crew. These shot racks or garlands are discussed in: Longridge, C. Nepean. The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships. (Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 1981): 64. A top view of shot garlands on the upper deck of a ship-of-the-line is depicted in The Visual Dictionary of Ships and Sailing. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1991)

From DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER: Brass Monkey

[FrogMom]

Now tell them about "Balls-to-the-wall"!

[Twodees]

In the 70's there was a drink called a Brass Monkey. Those were real, anyway.

[monkeyshine]

Don't forget about the "whole nine yards".

[Shooter 2.5]

I guess I can answer that.
There was nine yards of belted ammunition for each machine gun in fighter planes during World War Two.
The act of giving someone the "whole nine yards" was to unload everything you had at the person or thing.

[realpatriot71]

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[realpatriot71]

[parsifal]

There is one I always wondered about:

Bread Pie at morning
Sailor take warning.

Does this have to do with eating hard tacky for breakfast means that the food supplies are running low? parsy.

[Junior]

It's "Red sky in the morning, sailor takes warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight." Weather systems in the Atlantic move from east to west; a red sky (the sun reflecting off clouds) in the morning indicated a weather front was moving toward you. A red sky at night (the evening) indicated the weather front was behind you.

[Shooter 2.5]

I don't know. It may be. I wonder if they had an entire "Sailor's warnings" group of verses. The only one I knew about was the one that was about storms.
Red sky in morning,
Sailor take warning.

[Khepera]

So the only real question is did it really happen?

What about moisture between the plate and the balls? A thin layer of ice could contribute if it didn't cling to the balls. So if the balls where placed on the monkey after the formation of ice what could be the result?

[Shooter 2.5]

You forgot that the decks of a ship aren't a stable horizonal plane.

[archy]

Don't forget about the "whole nine yards".

During the Vietnam war, some Montagnard tribal leaders would fail to list casualties so that the pay and food allowances to them would continue coming in by their Special Forces and CIA benefactors. Too, sometimes even the wounded and disabled, missing an arm or leg, would try to get in on the payroll.

So prior to raids and patrols, as well as payday, headcounts and inspections of each of the squad-sized teams of tribal guerrilas had to be made to ensure that all the participants were both present and in sound condition: the whole nine 'Yards....

Anyway, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it....

-archy-/-

[Rockpile]

I have also seen the phrase "the whole nine yards" referenced to WW I airplane ammo belts. The explanation is totally bogus.

If you have ever seen the 19th century poem about the English ships going to fight the Scottish freebooter--the one with the phrase "though I be wounded I am not slain, I'll lay me down and bleed awhile and then I'll rise and fight again"--well there is a statement in it about loading up nine yards of chain for the cannons.{To take down rigging I presume}. This poem was based, I think, on a much older song/poem from maybe the 1500s.

I'll see if I can find a link for this.

[Rockpile]

Andrew Barton is the poem. Looks like from 1710 or before.

http://www.contemplator.com/folk4/abartin.html

"he put in chain yeards nine, besides other great shot less and more"