Well, today is not another letter. I should have finished out the week with letters cine I still have a few to do, but I think I will continue those at a later date.

Although the term is not actually proven to have come from a nautical source it is often attributed to sailors. The brass monkey is often considered a stack of cannon balls in the form of a pyramid. This arrangement was placed near the guns so there was ready shot available should the enemy be encountered. This is one possible source.
Another possible source is believed to have originated at the time when cannon were made from brass instead of iron. At the time the brass cannon were also re-enforced with iron straps.

The phrase “Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey” is then in turn said to have come from sailors as well.

Brass cannon at the time of their use were small weapons. The end of these had a ball on the end of them and this was used to help aim the weapon. Since the brass was strengthened with strips of iron the two metals acted on one another in different ways. When ships would travel in cold weather the brass and iron would contract at different rates. If the weapon needed to be fired it was loaded and fired. The rapid change in temperature could cause the cannon to experience failures ranging from cracks to explosions.

Sailors at the time knew this was possible. They would complain about the cold and related it to something they knew. Since extreme cold could cause the guns to fail they would reference to the cold to the weapon. The other source of this phrase is believed to come from the stacks of cannon balls. This however is believed to be false because of the fact all the cannonballs would contact at the same rate in cold and cannon balls were not stored on gun decks in this manner. Although there are pictures of ships with cannon shot stores this way it was not a practice that was done everyday.

So, a brass monkey is believed to be a small hand held cannon. Why is it called a monkey? Well one possible source comes from the knotted end of a rope, called a monkey fist. These small guns were also used to shoot a monkey’s fist across to another ship so they could pass a live between them.

So a brass cannon was called a monkey because it shot a monkey’s fist between ships. Since the guns were made of both iron straps and brass the could explode in extreme cold and the ball might come off, hence “Cold enough to freeze the ball(s) off a brass monkey.”

You read it hear first!