For a change, here are some clues as to the origin of this issue’s “Salty Talk” phrase, but I will leave it to the reader to discover the phrase’s identity. In the days of sailing men-of-war, almost every activity depended on manpower: weighing anchor, hoisting and trimming sails, or firing the guns. In combat, the ability of one ship to sustain its rate of fire against another was vital. Lugging cannon balls or shot weighing as much as 32 pounds apiece (and sometimes even more) from shot lockers deep in the hold of the ship was exhausting work. Most warships had some means of stowing a small quantity of shot near each gun as a way to ease this problem. There were shot garlands and hanging shot lockers.
Ships of Britain’s Royal Navy sometimes were outfitted with a triangular plate on the deck near each gun. For reasons not now known, this plate was called a “monkey.” Made of brass, it had holes cut in it of a sufficient dimension to hold a round shot in place, like the depression in a saucer holds a teacup. A shot would be placed in each hole, then other shot would be placed in the gaps between the shot in the first tier, and so on until one had a pyramid of shot ready near the gun. Under normal conditions, the pyramid would stand firm as the ship pitched and rolled, but when extreme cold caused the metal to contract and the holes to shrink in diameter a little, the shot pyramid would come tumbling down when the ship rolled in heavy seas.
So, how cold do you think it was?