Okay, this could be way off the wall for some, and enlightening to others. I don’t know. All I know is I didn’t make it up. I read this one from a blog the other day. You might already have known this, but it sure is news to me. Oh, the things you learn on the Wild Wild Web, I tell ya! I just thought it was pretty amusing, and funky indeed! Thought I’d share…

And so the story claims… A long, long time ago, they used to ship manure on boats around the Mediterranian. Well, the cargo was always on the lowest deck. The problem was, the boats back then would be quite leaky, and water would get in. When water and manure mixed, it would produce a large amount of methane.

Careless and unknowing crew members at night would carry torches, and if they went below deck with enough methane, the ship would explode. To solve this problem, they simply started shipping them above deck so any gas could go out into the atmosphere. To make sure this was done, manure-containers would be labeled with “S.H.I.T.” This of course, stands for “Ship High In Transit.”

Well, there you have it. As for how it became a vulgar term is beyond me though. And I don’t think I’m that interested in finding out either.