The US Navy’s Powder Monkeys and Ship Boys
Gun crews in the British Royal Navy, and later the US Navy, included boys known as powder monkeys. Taking advantage of their small size, the child sailors rushed gunpowder from the magazine to the gun deck in leather buckets, usually two at a time. When not in combat, the boys worked long hours, and endured harsh working and living conditions. Many crews viewed the powder monkeys as mascots and treated them with kindness. However, while kindness towards the kids was common, it was not universal. Some adult crewmembers mistreated, bullied, took advantage of the child sailors, and otherwise abused them, mentally, physically, and sometimes sexually. Throughout much of the nineteenth century, the US Navy typically enlisted powder monkeys between ages ten to fourteen, for a three year term.
They were the lowest ranking crewmembers aboard ship, and were paid about $6 a month – roughly $170 in 2023 dollars. Powder monkeys as young as thirteen continued to be used until the Spanish-American War, at the close of the nineteenth century. The US Navy employed a ranking system for its child crewmembers, literally and officially labeled “Boy Sailors”. At the bottom of the heap were powder monkeys, the youngest and smallest crewmembers. Next, Boy 3rd Class, who typically served as stewards or in clerical capacity, often in port. As they grew up and gained experience, a child sailor could rise to Boy 2nd Class, then Boy 1st Class. At age eighteen, the kids automatically became rated as ordinary seamen, received the same pay, and were subjected to the same discipline as adult sailors.