Myth

The story goes that during the Napoleonic wars cannon balls were held in place pyramid style on an indented brass plate called the "brass monkey". When it got cold, the brass would contract and the balls would fall off.

Reality

What a load of tosh! While "monkeys" as a term was used in the Navy it never related to cannon balls. It did relate to small boys who were used to carry the gunpowder from the magazine to the guns. To do so they needed to climb over the many wooden beams and so gained the nickname "powder monkeys", the powder in question being the gunpowder.

Cannon balls were kept (almost egg box like) in "shot garlands". A framed rack containing round holes that the cannon balls would be dropped into.

The brass monkeys in question are more likely to be the no seeing, hearing or speaking ornamental kind and the story brought about to explain a rather cheeky joke to younger listeners.

The BBC children's program "Blue Peter" went even more politically correct by suggesting the phrase was "freeze the balls TO a brass monkey" and then carried out experiments with iron balls and brass. My question to Biddy Baxter would be, just how cold could it get for the Royal Navy off the coast of Spain and France?

Tags: brass monkey, balls