Ship Trivia Quiz

So here's the next question lubbers, so listen up!!

If you were aboard a ship equipped with cannons, and someone pointed out a grunnion to you, what would it be, and where would the ship likely be located?

Here's a hint, there are TWO acceptable answers to the latter part of the question....

Once again, more nonsense from those who should know better!  The term 'Brass Monkey,' is of course ENGLISH and not French!  Further, the FRENCH make no distinction between one sort of cannonball holder or another, they are all 'Parcs a Boulets' (literally, 'ball parks').  The only one referred to any differently is the shot garland, which is referred to specifically as 'a l'anglaise.'  Have a look at the following photo of shot garlands on the French brig 'L'Esperance'

And here is what Jean Boudriot has to say about it:

Des parcs a boulets dits a' l'anglaise' sont etablis entre chaque caronade,ils sont realises avec un bordage epais avec logements hemispheriques pour les projectiles et sont soutenus par des equerres en fer.

Translated to English:  Cannonball parks of a form known as a' l' anglaise' (or rather shot garlands,my insert)) are established between each caronade, they are built of a thick plank with hemispherical residences for the projectiles and are supported by iron frames.

The term 'Brass Monkey' is of course English sailors slang ('Monkey' because it 'gripped' the balls rather than relying on simple gravity to keep them in place), and as captured French warships didn't remain in British service much after the end of the Napoleonic wars, the 'Monkey's' didn't stay around in English usage for much longer either.  Here is a photo of a Shot Rack on board HMS Victory:

And here is a photo of the infamous Brass Monkeys.  NOTE:  NONE of the cannonballs are 'stacked up like a pyramid,' but laid flat like billiard balls in a rack:

The use of brass for these 'Monkey's' and the use of brass in connection with iron to prevent sticking due to rust is well known.  As for the old tale about the contraction of brass due to cold possibly locking the iron cannonballs in place, perhaps there is more to the story than has so far been investigated.  Brass and iron are often used in bimetal strips in fire alarms, as the difference in expansion and contraction of iron and brass is what makes a fire alarm work in the first place.  Check out page 7 at this link: http://extenv.jpl.nasa.gov/presentations/Low_Temperature_Properties.pdf

GeorgeW wrote:

I would like to know where the written evidence is that these triangular shot garlands as they are referred to in the 74 gun ship volumes by Boudriot, are recorded as Brass Monkeys. Even in the Vocabulary at the end of Volume four they are referred to as shot garlands, but throughout his work he draws attention to differences in names and practice between British and French ships. John Harland, author of Seamanship in the age of sail, provides this information; . Röding in his Allgemeines Wörterbuch der Marine (1794) equates 'shot-garland' with German 'Kugelrechnen' and the northern languages all use words cognate with 'rack' for this item. The French equivalent is given as 'Petit parquet pour les balles.' 'Parquet' is itself a diminutive derived from 'parc' meaning a 'pen' or 'enclosure'. Plate XXXIX in the second volume of Jean Boudriot's Le Vaisseau de 74 Canons shows an arrangement found in French ships. A triangular 'Parc' is placed between the guns, containing ten balls...the resisting 'laths' or 'tringles' are about three feet long, made of wood, and hollowed out so water will not collect and cause the shot to rust. The triangles have the base towards the bulwarks and the point inboard. Boudriot shows these on all decks of his 74. An excellent illustration is seen in a drawing showing a cannon being aimed, with the gunlayer adjusting the quoin under the breech. [Fig 412 p. 131 Le Vaisseau de 74 Canons, Bande 4] However another Frenchman, Rear Admiral Missiessy, in his Installations des Vaisseaux (1798) shows the triangular frames on the upper deck, but linear shot-racks secured to the greater calibre of the guns on the gun-deck, or the relative inconvenience of using side-racks on the upper deck, where they would interfere with the placement of cleats, kevels and belaying-pin racks, and so on. [The Missiessy engravings can be found in the NRJ, Volume 11, Number 4, together with an article by Dexter Dennis translating most of the technical terms. Unfortunately, Missiessy's Plate II has been chopped off, so that we cannot be sure what he called these triangular frames. There is absolutely no evidence that the frames used in French ships were made of anything else than wood, or that they were called the French equivalent of 'monkeys', brass or otherwise. The excellent model of a 74 by Jacques Fichant shows these items as wooden, and Boudriot makes no mention in these volumes to them being made of brass. So if you would be so kind searat perhaps you would quote your sources so we can all share in this hitherto unknown reference.

Yeah, what George said! But if a "brass monkey" is French, why is it an English term?

I would like to know where the written evidence is that these triangular shot garlands as they are referred to in the 74 gun ship volumes by Boudriot, are recorded as Brass Monkeys.

Even in the Vocabulary at the end of Volume four they are referred to as shot garlands, but throughout his work he draws attention to differences in names and practice between British and French ships.

John Harland, author of Seamanship in the age of sail, provides this information;

. Röding in his Allgemeines Wörterbuch der Marine (1794) equates 'shot-garland' with German 'Kugelrechnen' and the northern languages all use words cognate with 'rack' for this item. The French equivalent is given as 'Petit parquet pour les balles.' 'Parquet' is itself a diminutive derived from 'parc' meaning a 'pen' or 'enclosure'.

Plate XXXIX in the second volume of Jean Boudriot's Le Vaisseau de 74 Canons shows an arrangement found in French ships. A triangular 'Parc' is placed between the guns, containing ten balls...the resisting 'laths' or 'tringles' are about three feet long, made of wood, and hollowed out so water will not collect and cause the shot to rust. The triangles have the base towards the bulwarks and the point inboard. Boudriot shows these on all decks of his 74. An excellent illustration is seen in a drawing showing a cannon being aimed, with the gunlayer adjusting the quoin under the breech. [Fig 412 p. 131 Le Vaisseau de 74 Canons, Bande 4]

However another Frenchman, Rear Admiral Missiessy, in his Installations des Vaisseaux (1798) shows the triangular frames on the upper deck, but linear shot-racks secured to the greater calibre of the guns on the gun-deck, or the relative inconvenience of using side-racks on the upper deck, where they would interfere with the placement of cleats, kevels and belaying-pin racks, and so on. [The Missiessy engravings can be found in the NRJ, Volume 11, Number 4, together with an article by Dexter Dennis translating most of the technical terms.

Unfortunately, Missiessy's Plate II has been chopped off, so that we cannot be sure what he called these triangular frames. There is absolutely no evidence that the frames used in French ships were made of anything else than wood, or that they were called the French equivalent of 'monkeys', brass or otherwise.

The excellent model of a 74 by Jacques Fichant shows these items as wooden, and Boudriot makes no mention in these volumes to them being made of brass.

So if you would be so kind searat perhaps you would quote your sources so we can all share in this hitherto unknown reference.

Times up!!!

Alright you passel of miserable lubbers, open up yer lug-holes and listen up!!!!

The question asked was ‘what is a Brass Monkey, and why is it necessarily made of brass?'  Note, I didn't ask fer no fairy tales or repetitions of circular reporting pulled off the internet neither!

A Brass Monkey is a triangular rack, made of brass and bolted to the deck between the guns of any FRENCH-BUILT sailing warship built after about 1750.  It is used to stow ‘ready-use' cannonballs in a flat rack, NOT ‘stacked up like a pyramid,' as even a lubberly Frenchman wouldn't be so stupid as to do such a foolish thing on a ship (the first time the ship heaved over from a swell or wave, the balls would be all over the place if they were stacked up!!), though soldiers in a fort might consider it. It is very similar to a rack used in Billiards or Pool. If you referred to Boudriot's books, he shows Brass Monkeys CLEARLY located on the decks of French-built frigates in both his scale drawings, and in his photographs of contemporary ship models, and in neither case are any of the balls stacked up in a pyramid.

A Brass Monkey is made of brass, because when cast-iron cannonballs are left lying around for any amount of time in a marine environment, they will RUST, and quickly too.  If the Monkey was made of iron, the balls would rust onto the rack, making them very difficult, if not impossible to remove without some sort of tool.  If the Monkey was made of wood, the constant shifting of the ship and the cannonballs would soon wear down the Monkey, making the balls loose and liable to fall out in difficult weather.  THIS is why a Brass Monkey is necessarily made of Brass!

Many of you mentioned that British warships used either shot racks or shot ‘Garlands' to stow cannonballs, and largely, that is true.  However, it is ONLY true of British-built warships, and does not include the (many!) warships captured from the French (British builders were too cheap to use brass, which is a situation largely still true today, but were happy to use them if they were already aboard!). 

Shot garlands are usually found on the upper decks of British-built warships, and consists of a small wooden shelf bolted onto the bulwark with cups to hold a few cannonballs.  A shot rack is found on the LOWER decks of British-built warships, and consists of a slightly raised straight wooden plank running fore and aft with cup holes to hold cannonballs and is bolted to the deck, located BEHIND the guns near the centerline of the deck.

The Brass Monkey is superior to either the shot garland, or the shot rack, because you can place more cannonballs in a Brass Monkey than either the garland or shot rack, and of course, the balls are located near the muzzle of the gun when it is withdrawn thus being more accessible for reloads.  What does this mean?  It means you don't need as many otherwise useless lubbers to sweat and labor up and down companionways lugging cannonballs up from the shot locker, and instead can just use Powder Monkeys (generally small boys) to bring charges to the guns.

As to the old saying ‘Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey,' that was NOT any part of the question, or its answer.  As far as I know, it is far more likely that the original expression was ‘Cold enough to freeze the balls ON a brass monkey' (i.e. the balls were literally frozen into the rack, either through ice, or possible contraction of the Brass Monkey itself), which was subsequently and repeatedly misquoted by ignorant landlubbers at a much later date, such as yourselves.  No pyramid of cannonballs, no balls popping out, just stuck in place and therefore useless, much as yourselves!  All of you up to the masthead, don't come down 'til you ain't ugly no more, and don't fergit to bring that miserable French 'banana hammock' salesman with ye (Shannonman!)!!!!

Well I am  quite perplexed by searat's question; Boudriot in his index of nautical terms only refers to a monkey as a small cask for mess wine collection.

This is what the US Dept of the Navy has to say abouit the definition of monkeys - brass or otherwise  

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

• o
• o Brass Monkey
• o The word "monkey" is of uncertain origin; its first known usage was in 1498 when it was used in the literary work Reynard the Fox as the name of the son of Martin the Ape. "Monkey" has numerous nautical meanings, such as a small coastal trading vessel, single masted with a square sail of the 16th and 17th centuries; a small wooden cask in which grog was carried after issue from a grog-tub to the seamen's messes in the Royal Navy; a type of marine steam reciprocating engine where two engines were used together in tandem on the same propeller shaft; and a sailor whose job involved climbing and moving swiftly (usage dating to 1858). A "monkey boat" was a narrow vessel used on canals (usage dating to 1858); a "monkey gaff" is a small gaff on large merchant vessels; a "monkey jacket" is a close fitting jacket worn by sailors; "monkey spars" are small masts and yards on vessels used for the "instruction and exercise of boys;" and a "monkey pump" is a straw used to suck the liquid from a small hole in a cask; a "monkey block" was used in the rigging of sailing ships; "monkey island" is a ship's upper bridge; "monkey drill" was calisthenics by naval personnel (usage dating to 1895); and "monkey march" is close order march by US Marine Corps personnel (usage dating to 1952). [Sources: Cassidy, Frederick G. and Joan Houston Hall eds. Dictionary of American Regional English. vol.3 (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1996): 642; Wilfred Granville. A Dictionary of Sailors' Slang (London: Andre Deutch, 1962): 77; Peter Kemp ed. Oxford Companion to Ships & the Sea. (New York: Oxford University; Press, 1976): 556; The Oxford English Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 1933; J.E. Lighter ed. Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang. (New York: Random House, 1994): 580.; and Eric Partridge A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. 8th ed. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company): 917.]
  
  "Monkey" has also been used within an ordnance context. A "monkey" was a kind of gun or cannon (usage dating to 1650). "Monkey tail" was a short hand spike, a lever for aiming a carronade [short-sight iron cannon]. A "powder monkey" was a boy who carried gun powder from the magazine to cannons and performed other ordnance duties on a warship (usage dating to 1682). [Source: The Oxford English Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 1933.]
  
  The first recorded use of the term "brass monkey" appears to dates to 1857 when it was used in an apparently vulgar context by C.A. Abbey in his book Before the Mast, where on page 108 it says "It would freeze the tail off a brass monkey." [Source: Lighter, J.E. ed. Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang. (New York: Random House, 1994): 262.]
  
  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.
  
  "Brass monkey" is also the nickname for the Cunard Line's house flag which depicts a gold lion rampant on a red field. [Source: Rogers, John. Origins of Sea Terms. (Mystic CT: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1984): 23.]

The only one missing as far as I can see relates to my earlier post regarding a calibre ring.

Monkey   Brass ring to test the size of cannon balls - if it was very cold it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey. Also, a wooden tub with two ears for the grog issue.

If the definition is not amongst these then it must be pretty obscure, so I for one surrender

Well there was a small brass cannon called a monkey... but

 No doubt many have googled the phrase and have seen the variety of explanations and disagreements surrounding the origins of the phrase, some even denying that the origin is nautical.

I shall be interested to see the source of searat's answer, and more to the point the basis on which a definitive claim is made.

Magnetic compass housing?

 The "balls" are otherwise known as quadrantal error compensators, for neutralizing the ship's magnetic signature from the compass.

Aren't Brass Monkeys underpants!

Each garment is manufactured in Great Britain, using the finest cotton-rich fabrics, carefully selected componentry, utilising traditional British sewing skills blended with modern construction techniques to produce underwear that will perform to the highest standards.

A rigid quality assurance regime is in permanent operation, every product must pass a rigorous standard of bursting strength, elasticity and durability, ensuring that no matter what moves you make, our garments will always stay with you, providing full support.

Every Brass Monkeys garment is designed and crafted to emphasises the best of the male form without any sacrifice in comfort or functionality. We want every wearer to not only look good, but feel Great.

Looking at the size of his balls, the pants look a little small !!!  

and no , it's not me.   

the usual disclaimer about having any connection with the company. 

I believe the 'Brass Monkey' was a ring gauge used to check the circumference of round shot. The brass was subject to contraction in very cold weather and thus would not allow the correct size ball to pass thro' the ring.

The brass ring replaced iron which was subject to corrosion which may affect the hole size and also was subject to contraction; but the brass was found to have greater contraction rates even than the iron.

A monkey - if you believe the folklore - was a frame on which cannon-balls were stacked for ready use. It has to be brass, so that the scientific principle of differential expansion/contraction can explain why cast-iron cannon balls fall off it when it gets "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey". And if you still believe that - you can knit fog!

Ready-use shot was, I believe, stored in shot garlands along the the sides of ships, not neatly stacked in pyramids where sailors could fall over them. But let's not allow facts to spoil a good story.

Rick

Yes, you've got him, finally! William Dampier 1651-1715, the greatest nautical explorer-adventurer at the end of the seventeenth century but nevertheless not very well known.

Here are the connections between him and the people in the question:

- William Paterson devised the Darien Scheme after reading (and later visiting) about the Isthmus of Darien in the journals of Dampier.

- Daniel Defoe based his novel Robinson Crusoe on the marooning of Alexander Selkirk on the Juan Fernández Islands by Dampier.

- William Bligh was sent on his ill fated mission because of the breadfruit descriptions by Dampier.

- Joseph Banks, Charles Darwin and Alexander von Humboldt were great admirers of the observations and analysis of natural history of Dampier.

- James Cook and Lord Nelson studied innovations in navigation technology by Dampier.

Dampier published several highly valued works:

A New Voyage Round the World 1697, Voyages and Descriptions 1699, A Voyage to New- Holland 1703, A continuation of a voyage to New-Holland 1709.

Well done Searat, you're up!

No, he didn't get lost, far from it actually.

After his first circumnavigation as a buccaneer the Royal Navy gave him the command of the first English scientific expedition of New Holland. The results of this expedition were rather good but nevertheless ended up in court-martial for Mr. X.

His second and third circumnavigations were privately funded. His last voyage amassed over £200 million (2008 est.). He however died before he received his share.

PS. Cook, Bligh and Banks only went because Mr. X. was there before them.

........Because he got lost the first two times?  If it wasn't for Sir Francis Bacon and the creation of the Scientific Method, there would have been no Royal Society, and with no Royal Society, there would have been no Cook explorations, no Bligh expedition, no Joseph Banks, etc, etc, etc.......

Sorry Searat, I forgot to answer. No, Sir Francis Bacon isn't the one, you don't have to go that far back

A hint then: the man we're looking for was the first to circumnavigate the earth three times.

subfixer wrote:

As this thread is entitled "Ship Trivia Quiz" and not "Notable People With Nautical Ties", we could start a separate thread just for that subject. That way we could have more questions ongoing simultaneously and we could have a choice of subject matter.

Well, ships don't sail themselves, right! Notable stories about ships and famous people often go hand in hand.

So, why don't you give it a try!?!

bryan01 wrote:

Thank you Shannonman. Next QUESTION: Charles Darwin, Alexander von Humboldt, William Bligh, Daniel Defoe, Joseph Banks, William Paterson. The actions & publications of these people can, more or less, all be traced back to one person. Who?

As this thread is entitled "Ship Trivia Quiz" and not "Notable People With Nautical Ties", we could start a separate thread just for that subject. That way we could have more questions ongoing simultaneously and we could have a choice of subject matter.

Then perhaps it might be Sir Francis Bacon, creator of the Scientific Method.....

No, sorry, not James Cook. You have to go further back in time. I could however have placed Cook on the list of people as well.