Figure 1.--The United States during the Cleveland Administration began building a modern navy. The 'USS Massachusetts' (BB-2) was an Indiana-class battleship, meaning the second United States Navy ship comparable to European battleships, although on the small side. It was a authorized in 1890 and commissioned in 1896. Although small, it had heavy armor and ordnance. America would begin building a modern navy, but not until World War I a modern army. The theory being that with a powerful navy, America would not need a large army for defense. The photograph here looks to have been taken soon after commissioning. It shows young crew members serving as buglers and a drummer. Source: Library of Congress

Boys in naval service for centuries served as both ships boys / cabin boys) and powder monkees. Actually women also lived abord British ships in the early 19th century while ships were in port. I think the same may have been true of the early American navy. Families lived around where the father worked. Thus babies wre born among the gun crews, giving rise to the expression "son of a gun". These boys might become a ship's boy or powder monkey. A powder monkey was a humorous term for a powder-boy onboard a ship. The powder monkeys were normallly the smallest and youngest member of the crew who were used to fetch gunpowder. Young boys, perhaps only 10 or 12 years old, served on British ships in the early-19th century, I'm not sure about American ships yet. The powder monkey collected the gunpowder charges from the magazine deep in the hold of the ship and carried it to the he was assigned to and performed other ordnance duties on a warship. The term was used on British ships (usage dating to 1682). [OED] The term was also adopted by the American Navy. We note an exciting story about an Irish-American powder monkey set in the early-19th century during the War of 1812 with Britain. [Galloyway] Another entertaining account about a powder monkey is the story of Tad Lynch, a young boy, who becomes trapped below the deck of a naval vessel while chasing a stray cat. [Campbell] He is trapped just as the ironclad CSS Virginia (the Merrimack) is leaving dock. The warship is on its way to Hampton Roads, where it is about to engage in a two-day battle with the Union vessels Cumberland, Congress, and Monitor. Discovered by the cook, Tad is given the dangerous job of carrying powder to the guns, i.e., he becomes a 'powder monkey'. He then does his best to perform his duties amidst the noise, smoke, and confusion of battle. I'm not sure, however, just how powder monkeys were actually recruited.

Sources

Galloway, George J. The Powder Monkey. Galloway wants an Irish-Ameican boy involved. Actually the Catholic Irish Americans did not begon to migrate until three centiries later. If an Irish-American boy was involved in the War of 1812, he surely would have been a Protestant Scotts Irish boy.

The Oxford English Dictionary (New York: Oxford University Press, 1933).

Created: November 29, 2001
Last updated: 10:18 PM 9/13/2016