Ever wonder where that most iconic and popular of piratey phrases comes from?  …. Well gather round me hearties ?

The first account found in literature was back in 1795, well within the lifetime of folks who would have said it in the golden age of piracy on the high seas.

What I have found is that “Shiver” is best translated as a word meaning to turn something violently into ‘splinters’, which is what a shiver was, and timbers, well matey, dats wut dem ships be built of!

But why say it?  Well, many deckhand, and especially gunners mates had to stay next to their cannons during sea battles and move around, load and fire, even when being fired upon, and it was a terrible thing they were very familiar with.

And, contrary to Hollywood, when a cannonball strikes something, it just shatters it.  It doesn’t explode in a fireball (watch pirates of the carr. and watch the trees blow up in flames LOL).  Anyway these balls were about 32 pounds and could go through a meter of solid oak. The end effect of that would be a raining shower of huge sharp ‘shivers’ like little wooden knives, putting out eyes and taking off legs and hand – also why many had patches hooks and peg legs.

The age of this ended when Old Ironsides (USS Constitution) came along with a  new design and thicker sides and, according to reports, the balls just bounced off the sides.

So there you have it.  I have some good links and a photo I took while my family was on vacation at the maritime museum in Beaufort NC, where the actual stuff from Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge was found.  Oh, and a side note, most pirates preferred smaller guns since they liked the small fast sloops, which could only carry the smaller guns, so they could strike and escape quickly.  No one wanted a sea battle, they would prefer not to fight and just scare the … gold… out of their targets, because it was a bloody ugly mess and everyone came away with scars, or worse, and in those days of infections, that could be life-threatening. But the Queen Anne was a prize that was supposed to be Blackbeard’s flagship of his armada he was putting together, and thus had bigger guns.

So there ya have it matey, now yer a bit saltier for yer troubles.  ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiver_my_timbers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constitution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannon

(18th and 19th centuries section)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Anne%27s_Revenge

http://beaufort.ncmaritimemuseums.com/about/

p.s. as a side note, if you have Netflix, and if mythbusters is still on there, they had a great episode about just this subject, and as usual, they blow stuff up! ?