ben hammersley wrote on thursday sep NUMBER NUMBER at NUMBER NUMBER europe london bill kearney wrote from the completely unrelated but funny department talk like a pirate day URL which is today of course that and piratecore rapping style URL anything just anything to get us off the geek dating tips topic bill kearney arrr he be a scurvy dog that bill kearney well shiver me timbers but my favorite pirate phrase is missing from both of those arrr and wondering if there s a rap equivalent owen URL q and a section shiver my timbers from tad spencer please could you tell me where the phrase shiver my timbers originated this is one of those supposedly nautical expressions that seem to be better known through a couple of appearances in fiction than by any actual sailors usage it s an exclamation that may allude to a ship striking some rock or other obstacle so hard that her timbers shiver or shake so implying a calamity has occurred it is first recorded as being used by captain frederick marryat in jacob faithful in NUMBER i won t thrash you tom shiver my timbers if i do it has gained a firm place in the language because almost fifty years later robert louis stevenson found it to be just the kind of old salt saying that fitted the character of long john silver in treasure island cross me and you ll go where many a good man s gone before you some to the yard arm shiver my timbers and some by the board and all to feed the fishes since then it s mainly been the preserve of second rate seafaring yarns 