how did "shiver me timbers" come about?

Answer 1

pirates.... being pirates? laul

Answer 2

Shiver my timbers is a 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 expression is a derivative of actual 18th century nautical slang, when the phrase "timbers!" or "my timbers!" meant an exclamation (cf. "my goodness!").

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the expression "shiver my timbers" probably first appeared in a published work by Frederick Marryat called Jacob Faithful (1834). After an argument over grog, Tom's father has his wooden leg 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."
It was most famously used 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.

Shiver in this context means to shatter into small pieces, rather than to shake, and is reminiscent of the shattering of a ship's timbers in battle. Marryat and Stevenson both wrote grammatically correct Victorian fiction, even when their characters were pirates, and so the arguably more common Shiver me timbers is likely 20th century in origin. Popeye, whose idiom was often quite lax, is probably responsible for the popularity of the latter version with one of his earliest cartoons from 1934 entitled Shiver Me Timbers!.

Both Tom Waits and Bette Midler have released songs entitled Shiver Me Timbers.

Answer 3

When pirate ships would sail in shallow waters and the coral reefs wold scrape the ship's hull, the boat would shiver and shake--voila, "Shiver me timbers" (Ships are made out of timber/wood, get it?)

Answer 4

From pirates, When you are scared whitless you shake physically, it could refer to the shaking of the pirate ship (or the peg leg). So when a pirate was scared adequately enough, you shivered his timbers.

Answer 5

pie pie the sailor man