No more monkey busness

[Keith at Tregenna]

"
Monkey hanger" is an affectionate term by which Hartlepudlians are often known.[1]

According to local folklore, the term originates from an incident in which a monkey was hanged in Hartlepool. During the Napoleonic wars, a French ship of the type chasse marée was wrecked off the coast of Hartlepool. The only survivor was a monkey, wearing a French uniform (presumably to provide amusement for those onboard the ship). On finding the monkey, some locals decided to hold an impromptu trial on the beach; since the monkey was unable to answer their questions, and many locals were unaware of what a Frenchman may look like, they concluded that the monkey was in fact a French spy. Just to make sure, the animal was thus sentenced to death and hanged from the mast of a fishing boat on the Headland.

The term was originally derogatory, and is often applied to supporters of Hartlepool United Football Club by supporters of their arch rivals Darlington. However it has been embraced by many Hartlepudlians, and only a small minority still consider the term offensive; indeed, Hartlepool United F.C.'s mascot is a monkey called H'Angus the Monkey. In 2002, Stuart Drummond campaigned for the office of Mayor of Hartlepool in the costume of H'Angus the Monkey and narrowly won; he used the election slogan "free bananas for schoolchildren", a promise he was unable to keep. He has since been re-elected twice.

[Alex Macdonald]

When i joined Salveson's Culrain in Glasgow late fifties there was four monkeys onboard (grass monkeys) they
lived in the engine room,the 4th engineer had what he called a blue monkey it was about two years old and had
muscels like the bosun,well the ship was on the iron ore run and back to West Africa up a creek somewhere
near Port Harcourt,needless to say i bought a MONKEY for 4 hundred Woodbines.It was a jenney blue monkey
about 6weeks old very nervous and shy.so i made a waistband and a leash got abox and 2 old pillow slips for a
bed lashed her to the arm of my chair with enough slack to reach her bed every spare minute i sat beside her
fed cleaned the bed tried to pick her up and all hell broke lose until one stormy night my cabin mate came in off
the look-out complete in heavy weather gear water dripping of him monkey took one look at him and dived into
my arms from that night on she would not leave me.( i named her Sheena)We docked in Middlesbrough customs
came into the cabin Sheena was sitting up on the dead-light let out a shriek customs never batted an eyelid.
Home time could not get her to stay in a cardboard box so being january put her under my overcoat where she
never moved until i was on the train then first out popped an arm then a head ofcourse other passengers had
noticed this and were not happy until i let her out and we all enjoyed her antics till we got to Edinburgh.
Finaly i got home were my parents already had 2 dogs 2 budgies and 2 goldfish.To end the story the day before
i was due back to the ship i took Sheena to Edinburgh Zoo where she spent the rest of her life andevery leave
for about 5 years i had to take my neice to the zoo to see her monkey.

[Roger Dyer]

Nice one, Alex. The Customs Officer probably thought Sheena was one of their 'rummagers' doing a search

[Lou Barron]

after reading about the monkeys brings back memories i was a deck boy aboard the duchess of bedford during the war carrying troops to the middle east the convoy would call into freetown and as soon as we dropped anchor out would come the bum bouts laden with fruit and monkeys but the orders was no trading with them so buson would get us to turn the ships hose on them to keep them away looking back we use to think it great fun but now i think of it we was being bloody cruel but we did have monkey it belonged to one of the abs