Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-05-22
THE POWDER MONKEY.
ACTIVE DUTIES OF A NIMBLE BOY
ON BOARD A MAN-OF-WAR.

by Boy Crews-One Boys Enthusiasm.
The word monkey is a dimlnutive often
attached by sailors to another word to de-
note IL smaller object of the same kind.
Thus we have monkey jacket, IL short pea
jacket; monkey yard, a small yard with
the sail bent, crossed on one of the masts a
few feet above the deck, for the exercise
and instruction of boys; monkey reef, a
short extra reef formerly put in topsails
and shaken out in Il free wind. A monkey
tail was Il short iron bar used in training a
carronade, and SO on.
So the smallest and youngest member of
a guns crew was assigned to the duty of
bringing the charges of powder from the
magazine to the gun, and was sometimes
called a powder monkey, but more gener-
ally IL powder boy. .
It is interesting to know that Admiral
Farragut was once an amateur powder
boy. When a little less than thirteen
years Of & he served under Commodore
Essex, in her memorable fight with the En-
glish frigate Phoebe and the sloop-of-war
Cherub, off Valparaiso, in 1914.
He tells his own story with characteris-
tic simplicity. During the action" he
says "Iw"s like Paddy in the c%atharpings,
"a man OH occasions 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 l assisted in working a
gun; would run and bring powder from
the boys, and send them back for more,
until the captain wanted me to carry a
message, and this continued to employ me
during the action"
Il powDER Boys DUTIES.
The part of a powder boy, though some
what subordinate, requires activity and
judgment; for while he must keep his gun
so we'll 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 thar the fire of
the enemy.
Ihe 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 a precaution, the
passing box on being presented for a fresh
cartridge mus 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 u number of instances
of ships blowing up in battle. The case of
the Torrent, the flagship of the French
fleet at the battle of the Nile, which took
fire and subsequently, blew up, gave rise to
Mrs. Hemans' beautiful poem, "Casabi-
anca."
The experiment has been made of sta
tioning crews of boys at the great guns Of
a vessel of war to ascertain how far by
careful training they could be brought up
to a high state of efficiency. The results
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 1900 pounds, the car
fridge 13, and the loaded shell IS pounds.
making a total weight of the gun to be run
out to battery-not counting metal sights
and side tackle blocks-more than 10, 900
pounds. Each of the 16 boys who form the
crew of a 9-inch gun had 642 pounds to
handle. This estimate does not include
the powder boy himself.
After a few months instruction at che
battery n 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 8
9-inch gun was cast loose, run in, load
cd, run out and fired in one minute and
thirty seven seconds.
On the day following, for a test of &C.
curacy. combined with a rapidity of fire, a
9-inch gun was fired four times at a
regulation target. The time of the first
fire being recorded, the gun was loaded and
fred 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 500 to
1000 yards. The remaining three shots
were fired without much regard to accu.
racy.
On the third day of the series, the guns
being secured for sea-, the ships company.
without previous warning, was called to
quarters a little after midnight, when a
9inch g~un-handled, as in the previous
Eases, euIIrely ny poyS-WaS cast loose, run
IN, loaded, run out and fired (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 warming
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 competition depended in a great
measure O. the prompt supply of powder.
This idea was so 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 to pick
out a soft plank on the lower deck, near
the entrance to the magazine passage, so
that when the hour Of trial came he would
be on hand to receive the cartridge first
hop1a1 ant 80 81. - ssE@ srs-4sr- .tz-GI .+.g-.