The Civil War Navies Message Board

Re: The Brass Monkey Mystery
In Response To: Re: The Brass Monkey Mystery ()

I spent 25 years in the Navy as a Corpsman, most of it with the Fleet Marine Force but some time on ships and deployed with them, and sort of prided myself in being somewhat knowledgeable of Navy tradition or folklore, and Ive heard this same explanation many times. At any rate, there is a book that I keep in my desk called "When a Loose Cannon Flogs a Dead Horse, There's The Devil to Pay", Olivia A. Isil, Copyright 1996 (Seafaring words in everyday speech)and tells the same story that basically, the cannon balls were stacked on a brass tray called a 'monkey' (kinda like a powder monkey?"). When the temperature dropped, the iron balls would contract and roll off of the tray onto the deck and roll around.

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The Brass Monkey Mystery
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