Cold Enough to Freeze the Balls off a Brass Monkey - origin

[WordMan]

Got this email today and going into a meeting - don’t have time to do a detailed Google or Snopes check, but trust that there are nautical Dopers out there who can comment. Part of me assumes it is a UL, but the guy who sent it is a nautical guy ™ so I am open to the possibility that there is a grain of truth to it:

Historical fact
It was necessary to keep a good supply of canon balls near the cannon on
ships. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck was the
problem.
The best storage method devised was to stack them as a square based
pyramid, with one ball on top, resting on four, resting on nine, which
rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a
small area right next to the cannon.
There was only one problem – how to prevent the bottom layer from
sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate with
16 round indentations, called a Monkey. But if this plate was made of
iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting
problem was to make Brass Monkeys.
Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than
iron when chilled.
Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations
would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the
monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, “cold enough to freeze the balls off
a brass monkey”!
And all this time, you thought that was a vulgar _expression, didn’t you?

Comments? Thanks!

[WordMan]

My meeting got delayed 15 minutes and checking Snopes took 45 seconds.

Snopes calls bullshit:

http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.htm

Sorry to bother anyone. Mods, please delete this thread if you aren’t too busy with the updates…

[fortytwo]

I’ll be interested to see if anyone can prove this “historical fact”.
I was told this story one when I was sailing (or rather I was being sailed ) in the Solent. It was related to me by a pukka gen sailor and so of course I believed him.
I was showing off at work a week or two later with my new found knowledge and when I repeated this story I was called upon to prove it. To cut a long story short I couldn’t. I googled it for all my worth and couldn’t get proof, in fact I think you’ll find it’s a good story but a myth. I stand to be corrected of course.
V

[Sofa_King]

Wasn’t the mid-19th Century about the time that monkeys became a popular household adornment? I’ve seen all sorts of antiques with the “see no evil, etc.” triplet tacked or engraved onto them.

I wouldn’t be surprised if bronze and brass monkeys were also a fairly common lawn and garden ornament. And chances are, they didn’t come with a set of cojones, which on a cold day sets them up for the joke.

Unfortunately, this is utter speculation.