Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[amba]

 
The expression comes from the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships carried iron cannons, those cannons fired round iron cannon balls, it was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon, but to prevent them from rolling about the deck, the best storage method was to make a square-based pyramid with sixteen balls at the bottom building up to one at the top. But the problem was how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others. So they devised a metal plate called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations.
The plate was made of iron so the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting was to make "Brass Monkeys", but brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when cold. So when the temperature dropped too much, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the cannonballs would come right off the monkey. So this is were the quote, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" comes from


I live about 3 miles from Historic Dockyard in Chatham 

[bootie]

Absolutely correct but I thought you might have waitied a while, just to see some other answers come in.

Living where you do I am not at all surprised you knew the answer!

[Jay42]

Yeah everyone who knew about the brass monkey well done but you were to quick to chime in I was hopping for some rather strange answers to that.
I knew what it was but then I do watch the history channel and all those other ones the misses reakons are boring.
But yes brass was and still is very temperature dependant.

[hotel21]

Absolutely correct but I thought you might have waitied a while, just to see some other answers come in.

Living where you do I am not at all surprised you knew the answer!

So why if, when standing on the roof of the bridge of a ship you are standing on the Monkey Island??      

[hotel21]

From that great oracle of all things factual, Wikipedia....   

It is often stated that the phrase originated from the use of a brass tray, called a "monkey", to hold cannonballs on warships in the 16th to 18th centuries. Supposedly, in very cold temperatures the "monkey" would contract, causing the balls to fall off.[13] However, nearly all historians and etymologists consider this story to be an urban legend. This story has been discredited by the U.S. Department of the Navy,[14] etymologist Michael Quinion, and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).[15]
 
They give five main reasons:
 1.The OED does not record the term "monkey" or "brass monkey" being used in this way.
 2.The purported method of storage of cannonballs ("round shot") is simply false. Shot was not stored on deck continuously on the off-chance that the ship might go into battle. Indeed, decks were kept as clear as possible.
 3.Furthermore, such a method of storage would result in shot rolling around on deck and causing a hazard in high seas. Shot was stored on the gun or spar decks, in shot racks—longitudinal wooden planks with holes bored into them, known as shot garlands in the Royal Navy, into which round shot were inserted for ready use by the gun crew.
 4.Shot was not left exposed to the elements where it could rust. Such rust could lead to the ball not flying true or jamming in the barrel and exploding the gun. Indeed, gunners would attempt to remove as many imperfections as possible from the surfaces of balls.
 5.The physics does not stand up to scrutiny. The contraction of both balls and plate over the range of temperatures involved would not be particularly large. The effect claimed possibly could be reproduced under laboratory conditions with objects engineered to a high precision for this purpose, but it is unlikely it would ever have occurred in real life aboard a warship.

[Drewomega]

  Now looking out of the porthole "where is that golden rivet" 

[hotel21]

Now looking out of the porthole "where is that golden rivet" 

behind you!  behind you!!   

[Rods2]

You'll be asking us land lubbers, what 'uckers' is next and terms like 'mixy blobs'. 

[Entwood]

You'll be asking us land lubbers, what 'uckers' is next and terms like 'mixy blobs'. 

As long as you don't "splif" on mine, I hate to have to "blow back 5"... 

[Vamps]

Now that takes me back a few years........Two Six Heave..............

[r1]

i didnt know that the ship had been there for so long
whats the betting theres a fire on it soon

[Lampynoiseboy]

You'll be asking us land lubbers, what 'uckers' is next and terms like 'mixy blobs'. 

As long as you don't "splif" on mine, I hate to have to "blow back 5"... 

Is that one of those "keys in the bowel" type party games?

[Entwood]

You'll be asking us land lubbers, what 'uckers' is next and terms like 'mixy blobs'. 

As long as you don't "splif" on mine, I hate to have to "blow back 5"... 

Is that one of those "keys in the bowel" type party games?

You've have obviously never been introduced to the wonderful game of "uckers"  ... part of the rules being that you MUST use the correct terminology whilst playing .. but you are not allowed to ask what the correct terminology is ...... 

All is learned the hard way, or by watching those adepts of the game whose ability is a wonder when you first start !!

[CaptainZok]

You'll be asking us land lubbers, what 'uckers' is next and terms like 'mixy blobs'. 

As long as you don't "splif" on mine, I hate to have to "blow back 5"... 

Is that one of those "keys in the bowel" type party games?

You've have obviously never been introduced to the wonderful game of "uckers"  ... part of the rules being that you MUST use the correct terminology whilst playing .. but you are not allowed to ask what the correct terminology is ...... 

All is learned the hard way, or by watching those adepts of the game whose ability is a wonder when you first start !!

Is that the one they also call Roger the Cabin Boy?

[hotel21]

You'll be asking us land lubbers, what 'uckers' is next and terms like 'mixy blobs'. 

As long as you don't "splif" on mine, I hate to have to "blow back 5"... 

Is that one of those "keys in the bowel" type party games?

You've have obviously never been introduced to the wonderful game of "uckers"  ... part of the rules being that you MUST use the correct terminology whilst playing .. but you are not allowed to ask what the correct terminology is ...... 

All is learned the hard way, or by watching those adepts of the game whose ability is a wonder when you first start !!

Is that the one they also call Roger the Cabin Boy?

Nope, thats Master Bates.....