A Load Of Crap?

Also...I think the reason for storing the s.h.i.t. high in the ship was not to prevent it getting wet...that would be a lost cause...but rather to make sure the inevitable methane gas could escape as it was created. That way it would not build up in quantity sufficient to cause an explosion. Then again, I am not an export in the transport of s.h.i.t., only in the shovelling of it.

i suppose thats why some ships dont allow you to smoke near the @!#$ in case the ship blows up, and the @!#$ would hit the fan. Henriks: "You have smoked too near the @!#$, dumkopf!" Larsen: "So? @!#$ happens." Henriks: "It was good @!#$ too, from Amsterdam." Larsen: "Ach. Scheissen!" Henriks: "And MacGregor has taken the only row boat, with the whisky."

You could be right, Justyn, I can't speak for the voracity of the claim (hence the title). I does make sense that if the dung was stored high then any water that reached it would tend to drain. It is amazing how many terms in common use did come from sea-faring usage.

After due consideration of my idea that water would drain from the manure - it made me wonder what happened to cargo stored below it. What did they use the manure for - fertiliser?

It does seem a bit unlikely that they would be transporting manure in ocean-going ships, doesn't it? I could see it maybe in canal boats, though usually a farmer would create his own compost for his own use on his own farm. I do know that fertilizer can be used to make one heck of an explosive, though. That's what Timothy McVeigh used to blow up the federal building in Omaha, fertilizer and some readily available chemicals.

Where on earth did you get all this crap from Mykle?

don't be an old woman Missip - it was interesting to read I mean who knows - it might come in useful at sometime in the future I can see me sitting down with my grandchildren and telling about how ............ maybe not !

i visited a zoo once where you can buy elephant poo. i did consider buying some for my mum as i thought it could be good for her roses, but then thought again as i was taking the train home, and also had doubts about actually handing over money for, well, poo.

There used to be a web site in the U.S. where you could purchase dog poo and have it sent to the person of your choice, gift wrapped! The guy offered a choice of poo from two dogs, as well as a choice of size and wrapping. I think he took the site down.

you can make a good napalm substitute out of dung, those little polystyrene moebius loops you can't help but snap, barbeque sauce and a shed seven cd broken up into little pieces

Didn't Dr No (from one of the James Bond films) make his fortune from exporting dung? I seem to remember that the Japanese used to recycle s.hit as jewelry or something like that. You can make explosives from s.hit because of the high nitrogen content - most high explosives are tri-nitrates - though I've never heard of cow pats exploding during throwing contests ;o)

Oh, oui mon fraire. Au parlez de perrier a la poop.

Dr No operated a quano (bird dung) mining operation. However, that was in the 1960s. I think this s.h.i.t. thing, if true at all, came about long before that. What a wonderful thread. Parlez vous la lange du poop? Mai oui......ahn ahn ahn.

It seems that bird s.hit is a far more important product than I ever suspected: In the early years of this century, Germany understood that any war that it might have with England would, at least initially, result in the blockade of critical war materials from abroad. The most important of these resources was quano, manure from seagulls that roosted along the coast of Chile. This quano was rich in nitrates and was the basis of the German manufacture of explosives. The problem was that it had to be shipped by the tanker-load across the Atlantic and past patrolling British warships. Who would have guessed that wars were fought using bird s.hit?

"When the GRACE of Newcastle left Ichiboe Island on 1 May 1844 there were 37 other vessels loading or waiting. with others arriving. The guano is 30 to 40 feet thick, with the top few feet consisting of rubbish which must be removed. After this they dig in facings, each ship having their own, and it is taken to the shore in bags and barrows, loaded into a boat and hence to the ship about 300 yards from the shore. At times the surf is very heavy, the GRACE`s boat was once upset with eight hands. A large boat was purchased by the captain to load with, and he sold it on when he left. There are a few labourers who live on board the ships. The shore is quite desolate as regards inhabitants but there are quantities of sea-birds called `penguins' and another called by the sailors, `shags'". "The ship LEO has arrived at Berwick with a complete cargo of 426 tons of guano which she loaded in 48 hours from the Chincha Islands, 15 miles off Pisco in Peru, Lat. 14deg 23min 8sec South, Long. 70deg 13min West. The guano is 300 feet thick. Labour is plentiful at about 3 shillings a day, English money. The captain had to wait a month for his turn to load and there were some thirty vessels there when he left. The captain visited only two of the islands and stated that the air was strongly impregnated with ammonia".

and we all know why they called the birds SHAGS don't we?

I don't know about that, Geordie, but crap jobs used to pay a lot better in the 1840's - 3 bob a day must have been a very reasonable renumeration.

not much to spend it on bobbing around off Peru

June 2002 @!#$ of the Month is George Bush. There is a strongly held belief that, in Bush, the US has finally 'elected' a leader it deserves. He is seen as the kind of man unlikely to remove the rights of the people to exorcise their anger with the purchase and use of a larger bore weapon; or to generate world beating levels of CO2 per person with the help of 30ar* cars and walk-in domestic refrigerators; or indeed to push the frontiers of accounting practise, despite the risks of memory loss in later life. Those prone to worry about the mental faculties of the current resident of the White House are often pointed to the team behind the man, with a wink indicating that the man himself probably doesn't even know where the button is. Following this stream of logic may however be detrimental to ones mental health as it goes hand in hand with conspiracy theories and belief in a new world order controlled by lizards. * ar measurements in car size are like tog values on a duvet, basically they represent the number of adult Afghan refugees who could safely be transported through UK customs without fear of discovery. This is in no way related to the cr measurement for Chinese refugees which would clearly be a lot higher as people can be packed more densely if it is not a requirement that they be alive at the end of the journey.

It's obvious that the Americans have an unrealistic view of UK customs.

this thread reminds me of an old luvvie story i once heard.. there is a canal barge, loaded with manure, and the bargee takes pity on an old man struggling down the road with his suitcases, he asks the old man if he would like a lift, to which the old man introduces himself as an actor (pronounced ACTORRRR) and they set off.. ..at the first lock the bargee announces " the Sally Bequest coming through carrying three tons of manure and one ACTORRRRR!!) ..the old man doesn't look happy at this... ...the same thing happens at the next lock..same announcement..same displeasure on the old mans face... ..just before the next lock the old man approaches the bargeee and pleads .. " I say, can we do something about the billing on this cruise do you think? "... it is a genuine, hardcore, authentic luvvie story...

:o)

Well, thanks for that, Mykle :-)

Cool!

If it's true, then that makes me wonder why s.hit is such a dirty word compared to poop.

The strange thing in the UK, Don, is that s.hit is seen as a very mild expletetive that is used in almost any circumstance where 'damn' might be more appropriate - but rarely to refer to poop, except in the vernacular.

And....the origin of the term "poop deck" would then be....? As an aside: the term posh mean "port out starboard home" and refers to the shady (hence cooler) side of the ship sailing from England to India and back; thus the phrase "travelling posh."