At times, when engaged in researching a topic of historical interest, the following often occurs. As the historical horizon broadens, the investigative trail often leads the researcher to totally unexpected destinations. This article illustrates such a phenomenon.
Last winter I was researching the history of several coastal batteries that had been erected in eastern Maine during the Civil War. One of my sources was The Report of the Adjutant General, State of Maine, 1863.
Within the pages of this report was an ordnance return for equipment on hand at the state arsenal in Bangor. The return contained one somewhat cryptic entry which attracted my attention: Quantity - 1, Item - Powder Monkey, Condition - Old.
Now I had always thought that powder monkeys were young! On a sailing warship the younger crew members were assigned the task of carrying charges from the magazines to the guns. Since the magazines were located deep in the ship this job required the men to scamper "monkey-like" through several levels of decks in order to reach their assigned pieces, therefore youth and agility were decided assets. So, why was this "old powder monkey" sitting in an arsenal in Maine?
The trail began with a letter to the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C. Unlike other searches, this proved, fortunately, to be a short though interesting journey.
I soon received a reply from Tyrone S. Martin, Cdr., USN (Ret). Commander Martin, a noted naval historian and expert on the topic of the early sailing navy, was at one time, during his tour of duty, commanding officer of the USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides." With Commander Martin's permission I have excerpted the following from his letter:
The only definition of "powder monkey" known to me and my references concerns the persons assigned to carry powder cartridges from magazines to guns in the sailing navy. These individuals, contrary to the popular fiction, were teenagers ("Boys," by rate) or older ("Ordinary Seamen"), not young children. In the Royal Navy, wives of sailors permitted on board sometimes also performed this duty — if they weren't functioning as surgeon's assistants.
Another "monkey" in "salty talk" was a thick brass perforated plate used as a base on which to pyramid cannon balls shot. Indeed, it is from this "monkey" that we get a well-known phrase: when the ship got cold and caused the brass to contract, the shot might roll off, thus "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey."
The "old" powder monkey must have been a brass "shot monkey" or more properly a shot garland. The ordnance sergeant filling out the inventory sheet, being a landsman, probably confused the nautical terms.
Old, the monkey must have been. This method of stowing shot on shipboard was likely abandoned years earlier, being replaced by a more secure system of placing shot in "lockers," racks along the insides of the bulwarks and around the hatch coamings.
One can easily imagine an 18th century frigate sailing close-hauled, laboring through the heavy seas of a winter gale with her decks awash in a welter of 18 and 24 pound shot. Definitely a skipper's "bad hair day."