Help: Shiver Me Timbers

Subject: Shiver Me Timbers
From: Ulli
Date: 30 Apr 00 - 04:51 PM

There is a Tom Waits song called "Shiver Me Timbers". I have the lyrics/chords but do not really know what that term actually means. I know that it is a nautical term/expression (perhaps pirate term?) but I would like to know the exact meaning and if possible the origin of that phrase. I'm sure there are nautical experts among the Mudcatters who can help me in this matter.
Thanks
ulli

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: Willie-O
Date: 30 Apr 00 - 05:16 PM

I'm a book-sailor, but I'm thinking the phrase is really a bit ersatz--isn't it Long John Silver's expression in Treasure Island?

...if your ship ran aground or worse, the timbers would shiver, striking fear into your sailor's heart?

Anyway, I love that song, was playing it the other night. So, do you happen to know what are the right chords to the bridge? ("fog is lifting, sand is shifting...")

Aye,
Willie-O

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Apr 00 - 06:06 PM

I'd have thought it's one of those phrases you use when you don't want to offend. Like saying "Naff off", instead of "F*ck off", or "For crying out loud" instead of "For Christ's sake" or "F*cking hell". In which case it would stand in for "Sh*t!"

I went through after I'd written this and put in the asterisks, in case there's a search engine somewhere that might freak if I didn't. I can't imagine pirates would worry much about that kind of thing, but I think it probably started life as a literary expression anyway.

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 30 Apr 00 - 07:38 PM

G'day,

You've got the way I've always interpreted "shiver me timbers" summed up in your quote, Willie-O

...if your ship ran aground or worse, the timbers would shiver...

ie - you would spring planks, crack ribs, and otherwise have the timbers of your vessel "shivered" or broken into bits.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: Crowhugger
Date: 30 Apr 00 - 08:07 PM

Ditto on that chord request...love that song!

CH.

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 30 Apr 00 - 09:31 PM

Running aground causes the timbers to shiver you are right in that terminology.. Yours aye Dave

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: Ulli
Date: 01 May 00 - 04:23 AM

Thanks to everyone who provided explanations. I had been looking really hard in all sorts of dictionaries and even tried to find the term in various search engines but couldn't find anything helpful. A thread in the Mudcat Cafe and here we go. Thanks everyone. The lyrics and chords can be fond here (hope that is what you are looking for) Click here
ulli

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 01 May 00 - 06:17 AM

No probs ulli - where are you from? Check the Madcap Mudcat Mayday thread, to find why I ask...;^)

LOL - Sam

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 May 00 - 09:41 AM

You haven't lived until you've experienced a hurricane at sea. The sea drops out from beneath the bow, the ship hangs and drops, and hits the surface again with teeth rattling jolts guarantedd to "shiver me timbers". Much more fun looking back than the actual experience.

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 May 00 - 09:43 AM

You haven't lived until you've experienced a hurricane at sea. The sea drops out from beneath the bow, the ship hangs and drops, and hits the surface again with teeth rattling jolts guarantedd to "shiver me timbers". Much more fun looking back than the actual experience.

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 May 00 - 09:43 AM

You haven't lived until you've experienced a hurricane at sea. The sea drops out from beneath the bow, the ship hangs and drops, and hits the surface again with teeth rattling jolts guarantedd to "shiver me timbers". Much more fun looking back than the actual experience.

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: Jacob B
Date: 01 May 00 - 10:19 AM

I always pictured the jolt that would cause the timbers to shiver as being a cannonball striking the hull.

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: MMario
Date: 01 May 00 - 10:37 AM

an from a site that specializes in meanings of phrases:

Do you have any idea what the phrase shiver me timbers refers to?

It's a mock oath ascribed to sailors, though it appears to be a comic embellishment of a slightly different oath, my timbers. The latter dates from the late 18th century, while shiver me/my timbers is first recorded in 1835: "I won't thrash you Tom. Shiver my timbers if I do" from Frederick Marryat's Jacob Faithful. Apparently Mr. Marryat invented the phrase with an eye toward avoiding his readers taking offense at stronger words. It's also possible that my timbers was invented, for it first appears in a song: "My timbers! what lingo he'd coil and belay."

A shiver, is literally "a splinter". Hence, when timbers are shivered, they are broken into splinters. A curiously similar word is shake, a fissure that forms in wood while it is still growing.

The phrase shiver my timbers was purportedly adopted later by cricket to refer to the scattering of wickets.

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: Crowhugger
Date: 01 May 00 - 11:05 AM

Ulli, thanks for the link, I'll check it out maybe after a little transposition...that's a lot of flats for my brain and my left hand.

CH.

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 01 May 00 - 12:00 PM

Whee... three huricanes Sinsull

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 01 May 00 - 12:03 PM

Timbers is also a reference to "bones" "shiver me timbers " can be a reference to the sailors own bones (timbers) Yours, (back to me hammock) Aye. Dave

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 May 00 - 02:08 PM

ONLY ONE. Must have rattled me more than I realized.

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: Ulli
Date: 01 May 00 - 03:56 PM

MMario, thanks for that explanation! (would it be possible to give me the site that specialises in meanings of phrases. Would really appreciate that)

To Sam! Being from mountainous Austria I'm not familiar with hurricanes and the powers of the sea (avalanches are bad enough) I'm also quite new at the Mudcat and, I must admit, don't know how to find your recommended 'Madcap Mudcat Mayday thread. So I'm asking for patience and one more little tip.
thanks ulli

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: GUEST,Barry Finn
Date: 01 May 00 - 04:55 PM

Never saw or heard anything about the saying that would lead me to believe it was a phrase truly used at sea. Barry

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: MMario
Date: 01 May 00 - 05:06 PM

i think it was http://www.shu.ac.uk/web-admin/phrases/bulletin_board/

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: Gary T
Date: 01 May 00 - 07:17 PM

Ulli, when you click on "Lyrics, Forum and Chat" from the menu at the top of the Mudcat main page, you get the page with the heading "Thread Name" (several centimeters below the top, which has that same menu). In that list of thread names, you'll find this one ("Help: Shiver Me Timbers") and the one titled "Madcap Mudcat Mayday", among dozens of others. The order of the titles changes as each one rises to the top of the list when a post is added to it, and some get more posts than others. The standard "refresh rate" is one day, meaning a thread will stay on the list until it hasn't had a new post for 24 hours. Older threads can be found by adjusting the "Age" box next to the "Refresh" button. Just look carefully down the list until you find the thread you're looking for.

Subject: RE: Help: Shiver Me Timbers
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Oct 05 - 12:15 AM

Refresh