The Legend

THE LEGEND OF MONKEY HANGER

Legend has it that during the Napoleonic War, the lone survivor of a wrecked French warship was captured by the fishermen of Hartlepool. Their short, furry captive was dressed in full military uniform (presumably for the amusement of the crew) and as no one had ever set eyes on a Frenchman, assumed to be a French Spy. Swiftly tried and unable to answer any questions he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Only after his hanging on the Hartlepool shore does folklore have it the people learned that they had in fact hung a monkey! To this day, people from Hartlepool are affectionately known as ‘monkey hangers’.

The date of the supposed hanging was never given more explicitly than as being during the Napoleonic Wars, Britain's conflict with Napoleon Bonaparte's France between 1803 and 1815. According to Historic England's records of 38,000 shipwrecks around Britain's coast, 14 ships sank in the Hartlepool Bay area during that time.

Suspicious of enemy ships and nervous of possible invasion, when the Hartlepudlians saw that a French ship was having trouble and sinking, they weren’t too unhappy about it. And they sure didn’t row out to try and save the men aboard. The town’s fishermen had been monitoring the progress of the ship as it fought against a vicious storm and when it eventually sunk they immediately turned their attentions to the wreckage.

While they waited, they had a few drinks (or maybe more) and talked about what they would do if a Frenchman dared to appear on their beach. They would question him and get all the information they could about Napoleon and what his next move might be. They might even gain information that could put an end to the war and make Hartlepool famous at the same time.

Amongst the wreckage of the ship washed up onto the beach, they found the only survivor, the ship’s monkey which was apparently dressed in a miniature French military-style uniform. He was clinging to a piece of the broken-up ship, and the locals ran over and surrounded the unfortunate chap.

They grabbed his arms (which they noticed were extremely long and hairy) and tied them behind his back. He was an odd looking little fellow. He was very short, and it wasn’t only his arms that were hairy – he was very hairy all over.

Hartlepool is a long way from France and most of the populace had never met, or even seen, a Frenchman. Some satirical cartoons of the time pictured the French as monkey-like creatures with tails and claws, so perhaps the locals could be forgiven for deciding that the monkey, in its uniform, must be a Frenchman, and a French spy at that.

They took the monkey to the town square and began to question him in an impromptu trial to ascertain whether the monkey was guilty of spying or not. After questioning the poor monkey for hours and failing to get any answers in English (wrongly assuming he was speaking French), they convicted him of being a French spy. He was sentenced to die by hanging. A gallows was made from bits of the shipwreck, and the monkey was hung in the town square.

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THE LEGEND OF MONKEY HANGER

This is a centuries old tale of intrigue, myth and… murder?

SET SAIL FOR GREAT BRITAIN

In deep water

three sheets to the wind

monkey overboard

Tied and bound

bottom of the barrel

In the doldrums

Today we're more about hanging out with our mates

THE LEGEND OF MONKEY HANGER

This is a centuries old tale of intrigue, myth and… murder?

SET SAIL FOR GREAT BRITAIN

In deep water

three sheets to the wind

monkey overboard

Tied and bound

bottom of the barrel

In the doldrums

Today we're more about hanging out with our mates

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