Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-06-04
THE POWDE R MONKEY.
ACTIVE DUTIES OF "a NlMBLE BOY
ON BOARD Al MAN OF-vNAR.

Commodore Porter-The Powder Boys
Duties-Some Examples of Sharp Work
by Boy Crews-One Boys Enthusiasm.
The word monkey is diminutive often
attached by sailors to another word to de-
note smaller object of the same kind.
Thus we have monkey jacket, short pea
jacket; monkey yard, small yard with
the sail bent, crossed on one Of the masts
few feet above the deck, for the exercise
and instruction of boys; monkey reef, q
short extra reef formerly put in topsails
and shaken out in free wind. A monkey
tail was a short iron bar used in training a
carronade, and so on.
So the smallest and youngest member Of
gums crew was assigned to the duty Of
bringing the charges of powder from the
magazine to the gun, and was sometimes
called powder monkey, but more gener-
ally powder boy.
1t is interesting to know that Admiral
Farragut was once an amateur powder
boy. When little less than thirteen
years of age he served under Commodore
Porter, on board the United States frigate
Essex, in her memorable fight with the En-
glish frigate Phoebe and the sloop-
Cherub, off Valparaiso, in 1874
He tells his own story with characters
tic simplicity. During the action" he
says, 81 WIS; like Paddy in the catharpings,
a man on occasions l performed the du.
ties Of captains aid, quarter gunner, pow
der boy, and in fact did everything that
was required of me-"
He then goes on to describe the "horrid
impression" made upon him by the sight
Of the first man he had ever seen killed,
and continues:
"When my services were not required
for other purposes I assisted in working a
gun; would run and bring powder from
the boys, and send them back for more,
until the captain wanted Inc to carry a
message, and this continued to employ me
; during the action"
THE POWDER BOYS DUTIES.
The part of powder boy, though some
| what subordinate, requires activity and
Judgment; for while he must keep his gun
so well supplied with powder as not to
lessen the rapidity of fire, he must not
allow the cartridges to accumulate on
deck, lest an explosion take place and
cause more destruction than the fire of
! the enemy.
| The powder boy must exercise great care
also, to prevent sparks or fragments of
burning cartridges from getting into his
passing box-the leather box in which the
cartridge is carried. AS precaution, the
passing box on being presented for fresh
cartridge must be carefully shaken over a
tub of water, to empty it of anything that
might communicate fire.
! An explosion at the magazine passage
would be likely to communicate to the
magazine itself and blow up the ship.
| History furnishes a number of instances
of ships blowing up in battle. The case of
! the Torrent, the flagship of the French
F, fleet at the battle of the Nile, which took
fire and subsequently blew up, gave rise to
I, Mrs. Hemans' beautiful poem, "Casabi-
| anca." f-'
The experiment has been made of sta
: tioning crews Of boys at the great guns Of
vessel of war to ascertain how far by
careful training they could be brought up
: to a high state of efficiency The results
I were very satisfactory.
RAPID WORK FOR BOYS.
The pieces to be handled were the Dahl
gren smoothbore, 9-inch gun, weighing in
round numbers 5000 pounds. The iron
carriage weighed 1000 pounds, the car
fridge 10, and the loaded shell Is pounds.
making total weight of the gun to be run
out to battery-not counting metal sights
and side tackle blocks-more than 10000
pounds Each of the 16 boys who form the
crew of 9-inch gun had 642 pounds to
handle. This estimate does not include
i the powder boy himself.
! After a few months instruction at the
1 battery series of competitive exercises
was instituted, and the result demonstrates
the potency of the drill. The first day of
the series, the ship being at sea and the
battery properly secured for heavy weather,
on the drum beating to general quarters
9-inch gun was cast loose, run in, load
ed, run out and fred in one minute and
i thirty seconds.
| On the day following, for test of &C.
curacy, combined with rapidity of fire, a
9inch gun was fred four times at a
regulation target. The time of the first
fire being recorded, the gun was loaded and
fired three more times, and the time called
at the fourth fire, the interval being one
minute and forty eight seconds.
| The first shot struck and completely de-
molished the target, distant from 800 to
1000 yards. The remaining three shots
were fired without much regard to accu-
racy.
On the third day of the series, the guns
UCAAE SCCuICu lOI oCe1s oAC 6uAp company
without previous warning. was called to
quarters little after midnight, when a
9-inch gun-handled, as in the previous
cases, entirely by hoys-was cast loose, run
In, loaded, run out and fred (the shell ex-
ploding) in two minutes and eight sec
onds, counting from the first. tap of the
drum.
AN ENTHUSIASTIC YoUNGsTER.
Now, the statement that the call to quar-
tiers was without previous warning,n
must be taken with some qualification.
The crew knew that might quarters" was
one of the exercises belonging to the series,
but no one, save the commanding officer,
knew what night or at what hour Of the
night the summons would come
Every one was on the qui vive Of course.
Moreover, the powder boys knew that sue
cess in the competitio depended in great
measure on the prompt supply of powder.
This idea was 80 fully impressed on the
mind Of one powder monkey, as we shall
call him. that when it was his watch below,
instead of repairing to his hammock, as
any well ordered powder monkey would
or should do, he preferred rather topick
out soft plank on the lower deck, near