Guess What?

[Keith Webb]

Wasn't it a brass frame used to keep a pyramid of canon balls in place which contracted with cold causing the balls to be displaced...

But then again, a little research reveals this may be false (although it is common useage now).

enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" is nonsense because:


Not even the venerable Oxford English Dictionary, records a usage of "brass monkey" like the one presented here.

When references to "brass monkeys" started appearing in print in the mid-19th century, they did not always mention balls or cold temperatures. It was sometimes cold enough to freeze the ears, tail, nose, or whiskers off a brass monkey. Likewise, it was sometimes hot enough to "scald the throat" or "singe the hair" of a brass monkey. These usages are inconsistent with the putative origins offered here.

Warships didn't store cannonballs (or "round shot") on deck around the clock, day after day, on the slight chance that they might go into battle. Space was a precious commodity on sailing ships, and decks were kept as clear as possible in order to allow room for hundreds of men to perform all the tasks necessary for ordinary ship's functions. (Stacking round shot on deck would also create the danger of their breaking free and rolling around loose on deck whenever the ship encountered rough seas.) Cannonballs were stored elsewhere and only brought out when the decks had been cleared for action.

Particularly diligent gunners (not "masters," who were in charge of navigation, sailing and pilotage, not ordnance) would have their crews chip away at imperfections on the surface of cannonballs to make them as smooth as possible, in the hopes that this would cause them fly truer. They did not leave shot on deck, exposed to the elements, where it would rust.
Nobody really knows where the phrase "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" came from, but the explanation offered here certainly isn't the answer.

Source

Originally posted by Keith Webb
Wasn't it a brass frame used to keep a pyramid of canon balls in place which contracted with cold causing the balls to be displaced...

sounds TOTALLY PAINFUL!

Originally posted by Keith Webb
Wasn't it a brass frame used to keep a pyramid of canon balls in place which contracted with cold causing the balls to be displaced...

But then again, a little research reveals this may be false (although it is common useage now).

Good stuff, ripper mate.

Can't fault that.

In fact a visit to our national hero's battleship, HMS Victory, just down the road from me in Portsmouth Dockyard, will show several brass monkeys correctly rigged with round shot, and all on the protected gun decks.

My own theory is that its partly true, the three-layer pyramid of shot is quite well planted although the monkey has but the smallest dimples to locate the first layer. I suspect manufacturing tolerance back then, plus some arctic cold and a heavy sea may have finally disloged some shot giving rise to the expression said in clever jest at the time, but it stuck.

We will never know for sure.

R.

[sapper740]

Originally posted by FV623
Good stuff, ripper mate.

Can't fault that.

In fact a visit to our national hero's battleship, HMS Victory, just down the road from me in Portsmouth Dockyard, will show several brass monkeys correctly rigged with round shot, and all on the protected gun decks.

My own theory is that its partly true, the three-layer pyramid of shot is quite well planted although the monkey has but the smallest dimples to locate the first layer. I suspect manufacturing tolerance back then, plus some arctic cold and a heavy sea may have finally disloged some shot giving rise to the expression said in clever jest at the time, but it stuck.

We will never know for sure.

R.

Here's a few phrases with nautical origins, anyone wish to hazard a guess?


Land Lubber


Bitter end


Three sheets to the wind


Limey (had to throw in this one!)







CHIMO!

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

Originally posted by Vets Dottir
I left some of our UNISEX DEPENDS for ya ... you should be good to go ... p

Naw, yours don't fit me...

Originally posted by Geoff Winnington-Ball
Naw, yours don't fit me...

But ... they're one size fits all!

Oh well, I guess a little is in order to make you small enough to fit 'em?