A note from Blackheart Joe:
Ahoy there! Bet ye didn't think ye'd hear from ole Joe
anytime soon, did ye? Well, it's like they say: A bad penny always
turns up! Just had to tell ye about one of me latest
experiences.
I was in me quarters one cold evenin' off the coast of New
Hampshire when me new First Mate, Cook, came a'smashin' through the
door. "Cap'n!" he shouts, "Did ye hear that crash!? There's cannon
balls all over the decks!"
"Must be th' Brass Monkey" says I.
He tears off like th' Devil 'imself is chasin' him. As I sat back
down to me charts, I feel the ship heel hard to port! "What in the
name of Davey Jones" I says to meself. I dash out onto the decks ta
see Cook spinnin' the wheel hard to port. He was a'breathin real
hard, I could see is breath in the freezin' air. "What the devil
are ye doin' Cook?" shouts I.
"Evadin' the Brass Monkey, of course! We're under attack, ye said
so yerself!"
I chuckled heartily. "No, ye fool! the Brass Monkey's not a ship!
We ain't under attack by anything more than a cold snap!"
A brass tray, called a "monkey", was
used to hold cannonballs on warships in the 16th to 18th centuries.
The tray would hold a set of 16 balls in a square formation, and
then a set of 9 balls could be stacked on top of that, and so on,
for a total of 30 cannon balls stored in close proximity to the
cannon. Supposedly, in very cold temperatures the "monkey" would
contract, causing the balls to fall off, giving us the phrase "It
was cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey."* This is
what alerted First Mate Cook that there was something afoot.
The captain couldn't let this oversight go unpunished, so the next
time they put to shore for an extended period, Cook was sent on an
errand to collect lead needed to make more shot for the muskets in
the armory. This cache is a cannon (complete with a cannon
ball!**), placed at a lead mine to commemorate this event.
*One last note from Blackheart Joe: I don't care what ye
scholars have to say! This is my story, and I'm stickin' to it!
I'll remind ye that the punishment fer contradictin' the Cap'n is a
keel-haulin'! **Oh, and you'd do well to check out the cannon
ball. It is the reason for one of the attributes.