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Bracknell RNA
C/O 14 Vandyke
Bracknell
Berkshire
RG12 8UP
Tel: 01344 422016
Fax: 01252 861114
Email
View map
C/O 14 Vandyke
Bracknell
Berkshire
RG12 8UP
Tel: 01344 422016
Fax: 01252 861114
View map
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Them be Cannon Balls
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In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannon fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon, but prevent them from rolling about the deck. The best storage method devised was a square-based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four, resting on nine which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of thirty 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 called a, "Monkey," with sixteen round indentations. 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 cannon balls would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!" When a sailor joined the navy during the nineteenth century, he would have been issued with one a square plate, made this shape to allow more sailors to sit at a table, off which he would have been fed "three times daily", according to Admiralty instructions. This then gives rise to the saying - "Three square meals a day". Or "A good square meal" To addd to that, fiddles were the raised edges on a naval issue square plate. These were there not only to stop food items such as peas falling off the plate but also to set the limit of food for each sailor. In the event a sailor was found to have so much food on his square plate that it touched or lay on one of the 'fiddles', he was accused of 'fiddling' or taking something not rightfully his. I.e. the next mans share of food. In the Navy "On the Fiddle or Fiddling" was an offence punishable by flogging. So here we are then with a sailor having been caught "on the fiddle" or "fiddling" extra food. His mess mates would now be saying of him that he has really "let the Cat out of the bag" this time! The 'cat' being the 'cat of nine tails' and not a domestic cat! Therefore, the saying "to let the cat out of the bag" is derived from when sailors were found guilty of an offence punishable by flogging. To finish on the note of Balls, that is Cannon Balls, all Naval ships that had cannons, it was important that they be secured. Cannons are very heavy, and a loose cannon on a ship's deck in a rough sea could be thrown about in an unpredictable fashion, causing a lot of damage. More than just needing to be lashed down during normal travel, cannons needed to be secured during use, or else the recoil would send the cannon on its way causing injury or damage. Hence 'Loose Cannon' The anecdote Store High In Transit still has some verification to be clarified, however free to search the web to find its many origins. Watch this space for more interesting ditties into the Queens's English, or you could join us at the Memorial Hall in Binfield on the 25th Feb 2006 for our Quiz night Be back me hearties soon with more ...........Signed Shipmate 'Bidders' |
