Ships cannon balls were stored in stacks in dishes called brass monkeys. The brass monkeys filled with water, when it froze and expanded the cannon balls would roll off onto the deck.
I will have to disagree on this one. I have toured a tall ship rendered historically accurate (and the HMS Bounty, but I think that's less historically accurate), and they don't store cannonballs in the pyrimid shapes. Can you imagine a rolling deck with those things all stacked nicely?
The cannonballs were stored on planks with holes cut out of them. I think they call them "garlands"
![[Linked Image]](http://www.phrases.org.uk/images/loose-cannon.jpg)
You can see the garland behind this cannon (right bottom corner of the photo)
Down below the main deck, the cannonballs are stored in racks (like soda cans) for easy retrieval
Even better, land batteries (like Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas) had a similar rack system for cannonballs, but they were heated red-hot in a fire on their way to being retrieved, so the cannon can blast away and set a ship on fire as well. Not sure how they prevented the powder from self-igniting when they pushed the red hot cannonball down the muzzle, but I'm sure the park ranger would know...
There is some mention on the web of "monkeys" in Lord General Cromwel's inventories (circa 1650) of cannon regarded as "brasse munkeys alias Dogs", which may allude to the smaller Minion or Saker cannons (3-4 pound shot weight/ approx 3" diameter) versus the Demi-Cannon (32-36 pound shot weight/ approx 6" diameter)
