Portugese and their brass monkeys

'Its cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey'. Sounds hilarious. Isn't it? Well! the truth is slightly different. In the 18th century Portugese navy ships, they used cannon balls. These cannon bals were generally left lose in the top deck. Hence, whenever the seas got rough, these balls swayed from one end to another and broke the sideboards. As a result, they decided to keep these balls in a tripod made out of brass. They called these tripods as monkeys. And during the cold seasons, these tripods became so rigid that they were unable to retrieve the balls. Consequently, the saying came into existence.