top-mast, or spar; to shift the helm,
&c. Also, to change one's clothes.

SHIFT A BERTH, TO. To move from one anchorage to another.

SHIFTED. The state of a ship's ballast or cargo when it is shaken from
one side to the other, either by the violence of her rolling, or by her
too great inclination to one side under a great press of sail; this
accident, however, rarely happens, unless the cargo is stowed in bulk,
as corn, salt, &c.

SHIFTER. A person formerly appointed to assist the ship's cook in
washing, steeping, and shifting the salt provisions; so called from
having to change the water in the steep-tub.

SHIFTING A TACKLE. The act of removing the blocks of a tackle to a
greater distance from each other, in order to extend their purchase;
this operation is otherwise called _fleeting_ (which see).

SHIFTING BACKSTAYS, ALSO PREVENTER. Those which can be changed from one
side of a ship to the other, as the occasion demands.

SHIFTING BALLAST. Pigs of iron, bags of sand, &c., used for ballast, and
capable of being moved to trim the vessel. Also, a term applied to
messengers, soldiers, and live-stock.

SHIFTING-BOARDS. One or more wooden bulk-heads in a vessel's hold, put
up fore-and-aft, and firmly supported, for preventing a cargo which is
stowed in bulk from shifting.

SHIFTING-CENTRE. _See_ META-CENTRE.

SHIFTING SAND. A bank, of which the sand, being incoherent, is subject
to removal or being driven about by the violence of the sea or the power
of under-currents. Very accurate experiments have proved that the sands
at the mouths of rivers are differently acted on during every hour of
tide (or wind together); hence sands shift, and even stop up or render
some channels unsafe.

SHIFTING THE MESSENGER. Changing its position on the capstan from right
to left, or _vice versa_.

SHIFTING WINDS. Variable breezes, mostly light.

SHIFT OF WIND. Implies that it varies, or has changed in its direction.

SHIFT THE HELM! The order for an alteration of its position, by moving
it towards the opposite side of the ship; that is, from port to
starboard, or _vice versa_.

SHIMAL. A severe gale of wind from the N.W. in the Gulf of Persia and
its vicinity; it is accompanied by a cloudless sky, thus differing from
the _shurgee_.

SHINDY. A kind of dance among seamen; but also a row. Apparently
modernized from the old Erse _sheean_, clamour.

SHINE. _To take the shine out of_. To excel another vessel in a
man[oe]uvre.