![]() 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. 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. Abbey in his book Before the Mast, where on page 108 it says "It would freeze the tail off a brass monkey." 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. ![]() 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). "Monkey tail" was a short hand spike, a lever for aiming a carronade. A "monkey" was a kind of gun or cannon (usage dating to 1650). "Monkey" has also been used within an ordnance context. ![]() 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). "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). 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.
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