Well, it’s killing me. I’ve tried to be restrained, but
@whughett hasn’t come back to tell us.
A brass Monkey is the rectangular metal rack that keeps cannon balls from rolling around on deck.
The balls were racked and stacked into a rectangular pyramid, on this “monkey” near the muzzle to aid in loading.
If your ship sailed to places so cold to shrink the metal enough, the cannon balls would slip and fall off the monkey.
Near Cape Fear and NewFoundland it was often “cold enough to freeze the (cannon) balls off a brass Monkey”.
At least that was the story my Grandfather related to me about the brass base that wasn’t attached to his chair table, but kept it from toppling over anyway.
Grampa was a collector of esoterica.(Junk of the highest order.)
He also had a Wiley E. Coyote “buzz box” detonator for dynamite, that he swore he got from Wiley...