Re: On monkeys and shot garlands

On Apr 30, 4:50 pm, "John Dean" <john-d...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ray O'Hara wrote:
"Mike Page" <mikeorang.p...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4636482e.199750215@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
New readers start here.

4) There is no evidence that shot was ever stored in pyramids on
shipboard.

Among the very detailed models of ships in the museum was a model
of the frigate 'D Fernando II E Gloria' (1843-1963). The model
clearly showed shot stored in elongated pyramids, restrained by
shot garlands, on the deck. >>
Who has a space after the two dashes in his
sig. separator, honest.

That ship is a total rebuild and nothing on it is original. What you
see is a restorers fantasy not a true old ship.

And a model really proves nothing. We might as well imagine a model of a
cabbit proved that cats mate with rabbits.
--
John Dean
Oxford

"CANOE" is an acronym for "conspiracy to attribute nautical origins
for everything." The "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass
monkey" phrase may or may not have a nautical origin, but if it does,
I would argue for a different derivation than the oft-mentioned folk
etymology in the OP. The alternative I would argue goes like this:

First, consider Herman Melville's allusion to "hot enough to melt the
nose off a brass monkey" (1850):

http://tinyurl.com/2gwtgd

_Omoo_: a narrative of adventures in the South Seas. By Herman
Melville, 1850.

P. 241:
....To use a hyperbolical phrase of Shorty's, " It was 'ot enough to melt
the nose h'off a brass monkey."...

Melville had extended experience at sea and was prone to using
nautical terminology in many of his literary works. In _Omoo_, Shorty
is presented by Melville as an ex-seaman with a sailor's vocabulary.
Googling to do some research, I found that (a) "monkey" was a name for
a type of ship cannon in the 1700s, and (b) that these cannons were
frequently made of brass. Thus, the "balls" of a brass monkey might
have been the cannonballs themselves -- and leave it to sailors to
make a rather salty complaint about hot or cold weather.

FWIW, a play entitled "The Brass Monkey" was staged in London over a
period in 1891 (numerous mentions at the MOA search engine results).

--

Aloha ~~~ Ozzie Maland ~~~ San Diego

.

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