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 versâ.
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 versâ.
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.