<P> "Shiver me timbers" (or "shiver my timbers" in Standard English) 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 alive and well". 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). Can also be used as an expression of being "cold to the bone". </P> <P> Although the Oxford English Dictionary says the expression "shiver my timbers" probably first appeared in a published work by Frederick Marryat called Jacob Faithful (1835), the phrase actually appeared in print as early as 1795, in a serial publication called "Tomahawk, or Censor General", which gives an "extract of a new MS tragedy called' Opposition' ." In the words of the "old sailor": </P> <Dl> <Dd> "Peace? Shiver my timbers! what a noise ye make--ye seem to be fonder of peace than ye be of quiet ." </Dd> <Dd>... </Dd> <Dd> "Lather me!--Shiver my timbers . if so be he comes athwart me--I'll soon lower his topsails for him--Here's King George and old England for ever!" </Dd> </Dl>

Where does the phrase shiver me timbers come from