Freeze The Balls Off a Brass Monkey

[Animal]

Freeze The Balls Off a Brass Monkey:

 

Is a nautical term which refers to the days of wooden ships and iron men.

 

A Brass Monkey was a plate made of brass with indentations milled into it to hold and stack cannon balls for ready use. These plates were square or triangular and approximately 2-3 foot on each side.

 

Brass being a better conductor of heat would expand in hot weather not causing much of a problem. However in the cold brass will shrink to a point where the cannon balls pushed against each other and at times causing the stack to collapse.

 

This would result in unsure footing at best or a truly dangerous situation if the cannon balls had fuses.

[Vance]

Might the rocking and rolling of a sailing ship also have something to do with a pile of cannon balls getting loose?

[Animal]

Bass monkey's

were used on ground based forts too.

[mini-muffin]

So Animal are you telling us it's a bit chilly up there in Va beach? Just hang in there a bit it's gonna warm back up this week too. Let see saw season roll on.

 

Margaret

[Condor]

I saw a statue of a brass monkey once.... and it didn't have any balls either....

[SilvrT]

I saw a statue of a brass monkey once.... and it didn't have any balls either....

 

Did you take a close look or was it just a passing glance?

[Condor]

YUP!!!!

[SilvrT]

YUP!!!!

 

non committal eh? ROFL (or one could deduce that it was a passing glance at first and then you had a closer look LOL)

[Condor]

non committal eh? ROFL (or one could deduce that it was a passing glance at first and then you had a closer look LOL)

 

Nope!!!

[Sailor]

Actually the brass monkeys were hoops attached to the bulwarks alongside the cannons. They were made of brass because brass does not expand and contract much. This is also why portholes were made of brass. So the glass would not be broken by the contraction. When the ships went north the iron cannonballs would contract, iron does expand and contract, and fall through the hoops. I have heard the idea of the squares on the deck but it does not make sense as the ship heeling over would spill them across the deck.

[Sailor]

Some other nautical terms

 

No sense flogging a dead horse.

Not enough room to swing a cat.

Three sheets to the wind.

Scuttlebutt.

Between the devil and the deep blue sea.

The devil to pay.

Over a barrell.

Don't let the cat out of the bag.