General Sir David Wright’s Dispatches of the

Great Tasmanian Military Meet and Rendezvous

 November 28th and 29th 2009

 We were all a little worried with the rainy weather as we were boarding the Spirit of Tasmania, our thoughts lay with the re-enactors attending the Great Tasmanian Military Meet and Rendezvous. The show was opened at 10.00am on Saturday by the Governor of Tasmania and all were on parade, from medieval swordsman through to Army Group South, a very strong contingent of German and Australian re-enactors, all in full battlefield uniforms and yes with fully working weapons.

There was a strong display of historic military vehicles, cannon, weapons, militaria and uniforms; all representing Tasmania’s military history from the 1840’s to present times.

In the main arena the living history displays were starting, first were the medieval swordsman showing their technical skills with fighting swords, all in period dress, clash bang ouch yes these guys and girls were not messing around it felt and looked like a real sword battle. Next up was the 25 pounder gun crew from the Reserve Forces Association going through the gun drill required to fire off 3 rounds. Army Group South re-enacted the battle of the Australians and Germans on Create in 1940, staring with a real Bofors gun firing away with blanks for effect, followed by the 25 pounder field gun, bang bang bang, smoke everywhere, then in parachuted the Germans (on the back of trucks) firing their K98 rifles, Lugar’s and mortars, the Australians in response still firing the 25 pounder, fired up their Bren guns, .303 rifles and a Bren gun carrier, the battle ensued for about 35 minutes with the Australian’s withdrawing after several casualties and the destruction (with pyrotechnics) of the 25 pounder and the Bren gun carrier.

Later in the day the Light Horse took to the arena and showed of their expertise and was fantastic to watch. Many other re-enactors in period dress and weapons paraded and strolled around the show all weekend, this just added to the atmosphere of the displays and the show. All in all the weekend was a great success for our hobby showing that guns and weapons can be used in a safe and professional manner.

The activities went on for both days of the weekend with the general public in very good attendance, most leaving the show with a better understanding of our hobby and our military history.

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Of Monkeys and Balls

There are urban myths that get published from time to time and Club Newsletters are not immune. One such recent example, published perhaps by an Editor who was scratching to fill up the pages, concerns the story that the expression ”It was cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey”, came from a naval story of many years ago. Unfortunately, it’s not true and I intend to prove it. The Net is rife with such rubbish, perpetuated by ignorance and lack of simple research. Likewise, the diligent net surfer can find out that what I about to tell you is the plain and practical truth.

The story is that “Once upon a time, in an ocean far, far away”, there was equipment on board ships of the line that consisted of brass plates, in which there were cast or pressed, substantial indentations. These served to rest cannon balls in/on, to allow the cannon balls to be stacked up like a pyramid and to be close handy to the guns in the event of close action. In very cold weather, these plates tended to shrink and the balls fell off. The plate was called a “monkey”. ALL THIS IS UTTER CRAP. Try find one of these “monkeys” on line on Ebay or any of the miltaria auction houses.

Only the French (and not for very long), employed a system of cannon ball holding frames. These were triangular with one side against the bulwarks and they were made of wood, fastened to the deck and had only single layer of balls in them, somewhat like a snooker ball set up frame.

The disadvantage was they got in the way of the normal function of the gun decks, which were the mess areas for the crew except when action was called for and hence the order, “Clear the decks for action”. There would often be many months between battle action. Ships of the line did not generally, sail about the seas, gun ports open and cannon loaded, that’s all Hollywood rubbish.

Cannon balls were mostly stored in the Orlop deck, way down beneath the gun decks, with only a relative few in “Shot Garlands”, near to the guns. The “Garlands” were wood beams around the mid line hatches on the gun decks, and on the bulwarks of the open upper decks. These had simple, non size specific, hollows in them to hold the balls, so as not to roll off and not to touch either. In the salt laden air of the sea, rusting of any iron part was a constant worry and needed to be kept under control as rusty cannon balls could, under extreme conditions, rust so as to spall off the surface and become too big and not go down the bore, or not to fly true. In the Orlop deck, they were kept greased (tallow) and free from water as much as possible, but still needed cleaning as a regular job. When in port for refitting, all guns and the cannon balls, would be off loaded for maintenance.

Keeping the balls low down in the ship meant she would be “more handy’ (sail better) and not be top heavy and we mostly all know what happened to the “Mary Rose” when she was overloaded and was top heavy and caught in squall.

The whole basis for this “brass monkey” thing comes down to an incorrect premise that brass expands and contracts at a rate vastly different from that of cast iron, which is only partly true. When making patterns for the odd hollow tube (!) in brass, I have needed to allow a bit more for shrinkage than I would for iron, but I doubt it would be 3% difference. Mind now, we are talking a temperature drop from liquid to a solid, not the difference in ambient temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere, which in the extreme might be 50 degrees Celsius, well… where ships can go anyway.

Having done some blacksmithing and needing to heat metal so that parts can slip over each other, then shrink and grip, I need to allow 0.002 per inch of diameter or 0.0508mm (thickness of a human hair give or take). So…a 6” (150mm) cannon ball will expand 0.008-0.010” when heated to dull red heat (600 oc) and that’s a lot hotter than an Australian summer day (so far)

Lets say the “brass monkey” holds 4 x 4 balls at the base row, that’s less than 0.008”expansion at 600 oc per ball, x 4 =0.030 thou or the thickness of a thin bit of card. OK and don’t forget that the “Brass Monkey” is also expanding and contracting, less than 3% more, but it’s moving too. Ask yourself; is it likely that the naval establishment would allow such an unstable arrangement of cannon ball storage in His Majesty’s ships? What about when there is heavy weather and the ship is being tossed around. Would the crew also have to contend with stacks of cannon balls collapsing and then the balls rolling around, perhaps to be lost though the scuppers, or lodge in the drainage channels? Perhaps to eventually drop into the bilge and become stuck in the chain pumps.

The other problem is that brass/bronze and iron in contact in a salty atmosphere will corrode quite quickly with the iron being most affected, which makes the story even sillier. When the “coppering” of ships bottoms to stop fouling was initially done, the first ships came back minus all the copper sheets, because the iron nails first used as fastenings, rusted out and the copper sheets fell off.

The coefficient of expansion and therefore contraction, for Brass/ Bronze is 0.00001 per unit length, per degree f, and for cast iron is 0.00000655 per unit length per degree f.

In other words, 5/8ths of bugger all difference. The “balls” of a Brass monkey are indeed fastened securely and usually cast in place, so it would be extreme weather indeed that would remove them. The expression is merely a crudity.

Nick Smith