I realized today that my research was incomplete. There’s buttload and crapload, so perhaps shitload makes sense as a quantitative measure of stuff. So now we have five (at least) measures: buttload, crapload, shitload, boatload, and my proposed shipload. Buttload, crapload and shitload are clearly related, but with no obvious cardinal or ordinal relationship. Which is bigger? I have no idea… Now, with my boatload and shipload, the ordinality is clear.  Still, maybe the size of the load is not as important as the impression provided by the descriptor.