Shiver my timbers

Pray, Sir, is this the way to Stretchit?
"Shiver my top-sails, my Lass, if I know a better way."

Shiver my timbers (or shiver me timbers using the possessive me) is an exclamation in the form of a mock oath usually attributed to the speech of pirates in works of fiction. It is employed as a literary device by authors to express shock, surprise or annoyance. The phrase is based on real nautical slang and is a reference to the timbers, which are the wooden support frames of a sailing ship. In heavy seas, ships would be lifted up and pounded down so hard as to "shiver" the timbers, startling the sailors. Such an exclamation was meant to convey a feeling of fear and awe, similar to, "Well blow me down!", or, "May God strike me dead". Shiver is also reminiscent of the splintering of a ship's timbers in battle - splinter wounds were a common form of battle injury on wooden ships ('shiver' means splinter in some English dialects).

History

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the expression "shiver my timbers" probably first appeared in a published work by Frederick Marryat called Jacob Faithful (1835). After an argument over grog, Tom's father has his wooden leg (a wooden leg was occasionally called a timber in slang) trapped between some bricks and is unable to move. Tom agrees to assist him on the condition he will not get a beating.

"I won’t thrash you, Tom. Shiver my timbers if I do."

"They're in a fair way of being shivered as it is, I think. Now, father, we're both even."

The expression is a derivative of actual 18th century nautical slang, when the phrase "timbers!" or "my timbers!" meant an exclamation (cf. "my goodness!") as can be seen in Poor Jack, a song from 1789 by Charles Dibdin. The opening phrase shiver my... also predates Jacob Faithful with the following lines from John O'Keeffe's 1791 comic play Wild Oats an earlier example:

Harry: I say it's false.

John: False! Shiver my hulk, Mr. Buckskin, if you wore a lion's skin I'd curry you for this.

It also means to shave ones back hair

Pirate stereotypes

"Shiver my timbers" was most famously popularized by the archetypal pirate Long John Silver in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1883). Silver used the phrase seven times, as well as variations such as "shiver my sides", "shiver my soul" and "shake up your timbers".

Marryat and Stevenson both wrote grammatically correct Victorian fiction, even when their characters were pirates. The use of "me" instead of "my", which is common to many British regional accents, has appeared in popular culture such as with Popeye; in fact, one of his earliest cartoons from 1934 is entitled Shiver Me Timbers!. The phrase was also commonly used in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons books, where it was said at least once in almost every book, most commonly by "Amazon Pirate" Nancy Blackett.