Crewman Shaw served as the helmsman aboard the 22nd century Earth Cargo Service freighter ECS Fortunate.
When the Fortunate was damaged in a Nausicaan attack in 2151, Enterprise NX-01 arrived to offer assistance with repairs. As the crews worked, Shaw and his first officer, Matthew Ryan, hid from Captain Jonathan Archer the fact that they had a Nausicaan as a prisoner, locked in a cargo module.
When Archer found out about the Nausicaan, he threatened to undo the repairs his crew had made to the Fortunate. Shaw would assist Ryan in trapping Archer and his officers in a cargo module and jettison it from the ship.
While Archer and the others were being rescued by Enterprise, Ryan and Shaw engaged the Nausicaan ship that had attacked them earlier. Shaw was not happy with this action, but continued to follow his senior officer's orders. The Nausicaans returned fire and the Fortunate proved no match for the Nausicaan ships. The situation was only defused when Enterprise intervened and negotiated a settlement: the return of the Nausicaan prisoner in exchange for allowing the Fortunate to leave without further incident. (ENT: "Fortunate Son")