Ship High In Transit

[navychief]

It sorta makes sense that the word was coined by sailors...

 

 

In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship.

It was also before commercial fertilizer's invention, so large shipments of

manure were common. It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet.

 

But once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the process

of fermentation began again, of which a by-product is methane gas.

As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen.

Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern:

 

BOOOOM!

Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening.

After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term "Ship High In Transit" on them which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so ! that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.

 

Thus evolved the term "S.H.I.T," which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.

 

You probably did not know the true history of this word.

Neither did I.

 

I always thought it was a golf term.

[+pcpilot]

Hey Cheif, I got one for ya. Do you know where the word POSH originated? You know, like really expensive, classy, super comfortable, all that? In one of my books on ships, during the time of the great liners around the turn of the century, people going to the orient on a liner didnt like being on the side that got all the sun, it was too hot. So the wealthy people would buy staterooms on the shady side of the ship going to, and coming from, their destination. As most ships traveled from the west coast, they would get a stateroom on the port, or left side for you landlubbers, on the outbound (west) trip. And get a stateroom on the starboard side homeward bound, hence the initials P.O.S.H. Port Outbound, Starboard Homeward.

 

 

Am I good or what... 8)