In the 16th and 17th centuries, before commercial fertilizer
was invented, large shipments of manure were transported by
ship. It was shipped in dry bundles because in dry form it
weighed a lot less than when wet-but once water hit it at sea,
it not only became heavier, but when the process of
fermentation began, a byproduct which is methane gas was
formed. It didn’t take long for methane to build up below decks
and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern,
BOOOOOM!
Several ships were destroyed in this manner before somebody
figured out what was happening. Once they determined the role
that manure played in the explosions,
Everybody began stamping the bundles with the term “Ship High
In Transit”, so that the sailors would know 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,” 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.