Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 24, 2025
I dutifully answered; and, moving aft to the skylight, raised the canvas cover which had been placed over it to mask the light of the low-turned lamp which was kept burning all night in the fore cabin, and glanced at the clock which, screwed to the coaming on one side of the tell-tale compass, balanced the barometer which, hung in gimbals, was suspended on the other side.
He was sitting in a comfortable easy-chair that was fitted with gimbals, like the compass card in a binnacle, or some other appliance which permitted the occupant to shift round as he pleased without moving the seat; as my commanding officer did now, in order to face me. "Don't be afraid, my lad," he said kindly, seeing, no doubt, how nervous I looked.
"There's bad weather brewin' yonder I'm sure of it but how long it'll be before it comes no man can say; it may be hours, or it may be on us within the next half-hour or so. What does the barometer say?" We both stepped to the open skylight and peered down through it at the barometer, which hung in gimbals from the fore transom. The mercury was falling rather rapidly.
There was a polished mahogany wash-stand in one corner of the room, and a small mahogany swing-table against the bulkhead between the bunk and the closed door of the berth; a horsehair sofa ran along the ship's side, opposite the doorway; a small lamp, apparently of silver, hung in gimbals from the ship's side, near the head of the bunk, and the apartment was amply lighted by a large round open port or scuttle, through which the gentle sigh of the evening breeze came pleasantly, and the rich, orange beams of the setting sun poured with so brilliant an effulgence that I could scarcely endure the dazzling light, and was obliged to close my eyes again.
I shut the door tight and wheeled about and found myself staring into the wide-open eyes of the lady. She was on her knees, at the other end of the room. Aye, and it was a room, a spacious cabin, not a cubbyhole berth I had blundered into; the lady's own quarters, no less. There was a lamp burning in gimbals, and its light disclosed to my first startled glance that it was a woman's room.
While thinking thus I had succeeded in finding and lighting a small lamp, hung in gimbals from the fore bulkhead, and by its illumination I saw that the stateroom was a nice, clean, cosy little apartment, such as Miss Onslow might occupy without discomfort; and, waiting only to light the cabin lamp the globe of which was smashed in on its starboard side, as though it had been dashed violently against the deck above I hurried up the ladder, and invited the young lady to descend.
The creaking of the hawsers and the "heave hos" of the crew as they warped the Seamew in to the wharf awoke the girl passenger in the cabin. There was little fancy about the schooner's after house, but it was comfortable. There was a tarry smell about the place that rather pleased the girl. The lamp over the round table vibrated in its gimbals, but did not swing.
Goodwin, the third lieutenant who was his room-mate, had already turned in; but it was impossible for him to sleep. Pelham took a match from his pocket and lighted the lamp, which swung on gimbals in the room. "What are you doing, Pelham?" demanded Goodwin "It is against the rule to light a lamp after ten o'clock."
The skylight was very large, occupying nearly half the area of that part of the deck which was over the cabin, and in the centre of it hung a large and exceedingly handsome lamp of solid silver, suspended by massive chains of the same metal, while one end of the skylight was occupied by a barometer hung in gimbals, and the other by a tell-tale compass.
Then, besides the rolling and pitching of the ship would derange the motion of the weights and pendulum of the clock. In fact, I don't believe that a clock could be made to go at all unless, indeed, it were hung on gimbals." "What are gimbals?" asked Rollo.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking