Manure

[Dunno]

In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and 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 " , (Ship High In Transport) 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 had always thought it was a golf term.

[Leodis]

Here's a little something to add on interesting facts about shipping fertilizer

Cats were revered in ancient Egypt and there were a number of great cat cemeteries were laid out along the banks of the Nile, where huge underground vaults and repositories held the mummified remains of several hundred thousand cats. One such burial ground was discovered at Beni Hasan in 1888 when a farmer accidentally dug into a vault containing thousands of mummified cats. The contents of this particular vault were so numerous that a businessman hired people to strip cloth and dried fur from the bones so that the bodies could be turned into fertilizer. Nineteen tons of mummified cat bones, or the remains of some eighty thousand cats, were shipped to Manchester in England to be ground up for use as fertilizer.



Yes I know I need to get out more

[da SLUG man]

i'm always being told i "Can't Understand Normal Thinking"


i think!