Chapter Ship to Shoe of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Ship to Shoe

Ship (the device of Paris). Sauval says, “L'île de la cité est faite comme un grand navire enfoncé dans la vase, et échoué au fil de l'eau vers le milieu de la Seine.” This form of a ship struck the heraldic scribes, who, in the latter half of the Middle Ages, emblazoned it in the shield of the city. (See Vengeur .)
   When my ship comes home. When my fortune is made. The allusion is to the argosies returning from foreign parts laden with rich freights.

Ship Letters These are to indicate when a ship is fully laden, and this depends on its destination.
   F.W. (Fresh Water line), i.e. it may be laden till this mark touches the water when loading in a fresh-water dock or river.
   I.S. (Indian Summer line). It was to be loaded to this point in the Indian seas in summer time.
   S. The summer draught in the Mediterranean.
   W. The winter draught in the Mediterranean.
   W.N.A. (Winter North Atlantic line).

Ship-shape As methodically arranged as things in a ship; in good order. When a vessel is sent out temporarily rigged, it is termed “jury-rigged” (i.e. jour-y, meaning pro tem., for the day or time being). Her rigging is completed while at sea, and when the jury-rigging has been duly changed for ship-rigging, the vessel is in “ship-shape,” i.e. due or regular order.

Ship of the Desert The camel.

“Three thousand camels his rank pastures fed,
Arabia's wandering ships, for traffic bred.”
G. Sandys: Paraphrase from Job (1610).

Ships There are three ships often confounded, viz. the Great Harry, the Regent, and the Henry Grâce de Dieu.
   The GREAT HARRY was built in the third year of Henry VII. (1488). It was a two-decker with three masts, and was accidentally burnt at Woolwich in 1553.
   The REGENT was burnt in 1512 in an engagement with the French.
   The HENRY GRÂCE DE DIEU was built at Erith in 1515. It had three decks and four masts. It was named Edward, after the death of Henry VIII. in 1547. There is no record of its destruction.

“Though we are not acquainted with all the particular ships that formed the navy of Henry VIII., we know that among them were two very large ones. viz. the Regent, and the Henry Grace de Dieu. The former being burnt in 1512, in an engagement with the French, occasioned Henry to build the latter.”- Willet: Naval Architecture, xi. 158.

Ships of the Line Men-of-war large enough to have a place in a line of battle. They must not have less than two decks or two complete tiers of guns.

Shipton (See Mother .)

Shire and County. When the Saxon kings created an earl, they gave him a shire or division of land to govern. At the Norman conquest the word count superseded the title of earl, and the earldom was called a county. Even to the present hour we call the wife of an earl a countess. (Anglo-Saxon, scire, from sciran, to divide.)
   He comes from the shires; has a seat in the shires, etc.- in those English counties which terminate in “shire:” a belt running from Devonshire and Hampshire in a north-east direction. In a general way it means the midland counties.
    Anglesey in Wales, and twelve counties of England, do not terminate in “shire.”

Shire Horses originally meant horses bred in the midland and eastern shires of England, but now mean any draught-horses of a certain character which can show a registered pedigree. The sire and dam, with a minute description of the horse itself, its age, marks, and so on, must be shown in order to prove the claim of a “shire horse.” Shire horses are noted for their great size, muscular power, and beauty of form; stallions to serve cart mares.
   Clydesdale horses are Scotch draught-horses, not equal to shire horses in size, but of great endurance.
   A hackney is not a thoroughbred, but nearly so, and makes the best roadster, hunter, and carriage-horse. Its action is showy, and its pace good. A first-class roadster will trot a mile in two and a half minutes. American trotters sometimes exceed this record. The best hackneys are produced from thorough sires mated with half-bred mares.

Shirt (See Nessus .)
   Shirt for ensign. When Sultan Saladin died, he commanded that no ceremony should be used but this: A priest was to carry his shirt on a lance, and say: “Saladin, the conqueror of the