Great photo by Bruce Kerridge and story behind the photo. Although I think he may be wrong about the origin. I always understood that the brass monkey was a pile of cannon balls. When it was cold the brass cannon balls contracted and the pyramid of cannon balls fell apart. Hence the balls fell off if you get my meaning.
Adam
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I’ve had a few emails from people who’ve seen some of my sailing shots,
asking for a shot taken on-board during long ocean yacht races when
I’ve been stupid enough to do those races.
This one sure ain’t ‘photographic art’, but you asked for it……. So what you see is what you get
It’s taken midway through the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race – one
of the classic ocean races of the world, and taken at a location about
80 miles offshore in the Bass Strait, between mainland Australia and
Tasmania.
After three nights at sea, sitting on the rail of the boat in bitterly
cold conditions as it lurches south through monster seas, on the verge
of breaking-up, you are so wet, tired, sore, sleep-deprived and
nauseous that you wonder why you do it. The only rationale is maritime
masochism, or alternatively some sort of ego-trip for idiot yachties.
You’re not sure if you’re dreaming or living in reality.
You think you’ve died either of drowning or hypothermia, then you
realise you can’t be in heaven because it’s not pleasant, and you can’t
be in hell because it’s too bloody cold to be hell.
You’re terrified when you realise you are actually alive and this is
reality. But you’re at sea so you can’t get off. There’s no way out,
and no hiding place.
When your sanity returns you realise the best way to avoid sea-sickness
is to sit under a tree looking at cows grazing, and reading a book.
The shot was taken with a cheap “focus free” waterproof film camera
(basically a $20 camera in a plastic case held together with a rubber
band) and then scanned. Don’t ask for technical details because there
aren’t any. This is serious low-tech
The title of the shot means not what you might have imagined (as
evocative as that might be). It is a 19th century British naval
expression, relating to the pair of magnetised balls that sit atop the
brass binnacle housing the yacht’s compass. Hence derivatives such as
“brass monkey weather” etc – are relevant only to idiots who choose to
go out to sea when sensible people don’t.
Bruce Kerridge
Very close. The monkey is a brass tray that the iron cannonballs sit on and generally keeps them from rolling as the boat does. The cold contracts the size of one or both components causing the balls to dislodge.
They Brass tray theory was always my understanding though it is a contested subject.
The links led me back to this page.
I’d hate to die insane in the roaring forty’s and not know how I should have judged my foolishness.
Unfortunately the explanations given for the phrase “cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey” are incorrect. The physics don’t work and the phrase predates both cannon and compass. No one knows for sure what the etymology is.