Brass Monkey Trivia Options

[GriffGirl]

It was necessary to keep a good supply of cannon balls near the cannon on old war ships. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck was the problem. The best storage method devised was to stack them as asquare based pyramid, with one ball on top, resting on four, resting on nine, which rested on sixteen.
Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding/rolling from under the others.
The solution was a metal plate with 16 round indentations, called, for reasons unknown, a Monkey. But if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make them of brass - hence, Brass Monkeys.
Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey.
Thus, it was quite literally, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. And all this time, you thought that was just a vulgar expression, didn't you?

[BloodyStupidDave...]

called, for reasons unknown, a Monkey.

It is likely that on big battle ships, the lads that loaded the shot into the cannons or fetched shot from the store room to the cannons, were called "shot monkeys". It is thought that on friggits, where the guns were on the main deck, the crew were smaller, and the shot was stored on the main deck rather than in a store room, that the storage local to the cannon might have been called a brass monkey.

The bit about the metals contracting at different rates is almost certainly part of folk etymology (scientifically, the difference is minimal) but it is possible that the shot balls suffered from freezing onto the brass monkeys.

There are other theories too, including that it is a reference to actual brass monkeys.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_monkey_...ial_expression)

This post has been edited by BloodyStupidDavey: Oct 24, 2008 - 1:14 PM