[Northkeep] Did you know where these expressions came from?
Hugh & Belinda Niewoehner
BurgBorrendohl at valornet.com
Mon Feb 13 05:42:02 PST 2012
Don't know about the rest, but in response to this one, I found the
following:
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): 17.
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq107.htm
On 2/13/2012 6:31 AM, Shirley Hackworth wrote:
> Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass
> indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannonballs would come right
> off the monkey; Thus, it was quite literally, 'Cold enough to freeze the
> balls off a brass monkey.' (All this time, you thought that was an improper
> expression, didn't you.)
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