Having just seen a 6 part Masterpiece Theater of Dicken's BLEAK HOUSE, where one of the evil characters who had to be carried about in a litter, kept ordering his niece to "Shake me up, Judy, shake me up!" (because his bones were in bad shape), I suddenly got what this expression "shiver me timbers" possibly means: a trembling in the bones of the body, probably over some heinous piratical situation. Great atmosphere andn feeling of another time when wind ruled and men ran like monkeys in the rigging!
