Children in American Warships
Age of Sail naval combat boiled down to warships firing broadsides at each other from rows of guns lining their decks. Speed of cannon discharge and reload and maintaining a rate of fire were vital, and nobody wanted their guns to run out of ammunition mid-fight. Stockpiling cannonballs next to the guns was simple, but stockpiling gunpowder nearby was problematic: it was too dangerous to leave large amounts of powder on the gun deck. One errant spark in a space full of sparks and flames during combat could spell disaster. So a system was devised to send a steady stream of small amounts of gunpowder from the ship’s magazine or Powder Room, located beneath the waterline, to the guns. Sailors rushing back and forth between the Powder Room and guns, bearing relatively small amounts of gunpowder each trip, reduced the risks of catastrophic explosions.
It did not take long before naval authorities realized that the ideal gunpowder courier was a child. Combat ships are exceptionally confined places with crammed spaces. Even more so in the wooden ships of centuries past. Those tasked with rushing gunpowder from the Powder Room to the waiting guns had to climb up and down narrow stairs. They also had to run through tight and low corridors full of all kinds of projections for sailors to bump their heads into and knock themselves out. Being big in such small confines was a liability. It was difficult for an average-sized adult to sprint back and forth through such limited spaces. A child, by contrast, could do so far more easily. So children, known as powder monkeys, were utilized to rush gunpowder from ship magazines to the cannons.