"Binnacle" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... and traffic with the natives: They bartered their clothes and arms, chiefly for paper, and behaved with great friendship and honesty. But while some of them were below with Mr Banks, a young man who was upon the deck stole a half minute glass which was in the binnacle, and was detected just as he was carrying it off. Mr Hicks, who was commanding officer on board, took it into his head to punish him, by giving him twelve lashes with a cat-o'-nine-tails; and accordingly ordered him to be taken to the gang-way, and tied ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr
... door disappeared with a bang, and I was left alone in a dripping, yellow darkness. I have been in the Navy for ten years, but I have never known such a fog as that of last night, not even among the icebergs of Behring Sea. There one at least could see the light of the binnacle, but last night I could not even distinguish the hand by which I guided myself along the barrack-wall. At sea a fog is a natural phenomenon. It is as familiar as the rainbow which follows a storm, it is as proper that a fog should spread upon the waters ...
— Ranson's Folly • Richard Harding Davis
... slipped up after him. The first thing I saw was old Eaton at work at the tiller. He got it unshipped and braced up with a pair of oars and a hencoop, without waking the man at the helm,—how, I couldn't tell,—but he was just like a cat; and then he blew the binnacle-light out; and then he started forrard, with his trumpet in his hand. He caught sight of me, standing halfway up the companion-way, and shook his fist at me to keep quiet and not to spoil sport. He slipped forward and out on to the bowsprit, clear out to the end of ...
— The Atlantic Monthly , Volume 2, No. 14, December 1858 • Various
... were trimmed until the little schooner, with lee rail awash, was running something east of north, on an easy bowline, carrying a bone in her teeth and leaving a bubbling wake trailing far astern. With everything thus satisfactorily in shape, White lighted the binnacle lamp, and giving Cabot a course to steer, went below to prepare the first meal of their long cruise. "You must keep a sharp lookout," he said as he disappeared down the companionway, "for I don't dare show any ...
— Under the Great Bear • Kirk Munroe
... the way aft; not a soul was to be seen: indeed, it was too dark to see anybody unless they were walking the deck. The companion-hatch was secured, and the gratings laid on the after-hatchways, and then they went aft to the binnacle again, where there was a light burning. Mesty ordered two of the men to go forward to secure the hatches, and then to remain there on guard—and then the rest of the men and our hero consulted at ...
— Mr. Midshipman Easy • Frederick Marryat
... had given proofs that she was in an extra good temper, for being a little way behind Bombazo—as if impelled by some sudden and joyous impulse—she lifted that everlasting umbrella and hit him a friendly thwack that could be heard from bowsprit to binnacle. ...
— Our Home in the Silver West - A Story of Struggle and Adventure • Gordon Stables
... gets in five hours of the country that we was going to introduce to long drinks and short change the captain calls us over to the starboard binnacle and recollects a ...
— The Trimmed Lamp • O. Henry
... fog-horn bluff was safe enough, where all was weed and weft, And the conger-eels were a-making meals, and the pick of the tackle left Was a binnacle-lid and a leak in the bilge and the chip of a cracked sheerstrake And the corporal's belt and the moke's cool pelt and a portrait ...
— The Battle of the Bays • Owen Seaman
... along a line that'll cross somewhere northard of New Zealand," Daughtry guessed to himself, after a hundred stolen glances into the binnacle. But that was all the information concerning the ship's navigation he could steal; for Captain Doane took the observations and worked them out, to the exclusion of the mate, and Captain Doane always methodically locked up his chart and log. That there were heated ...
— Michael, Brother of Jerry • Jack London
... behind clouds of smoky red, but the light of the summer evening lasted for some time after. Then darkness came down over the sea, and it was desolate except for the sidelights of distant craft. The mate drew out his watch and by the light of the binnacle-lamp, saw that it was ten minutes to ten. At the same moment he heard somebody moving ...
— A Master Of Craft • W. W. Jacobs
... the addition of some sails and tarpaulins stretched on spars, made a very comfortable storehouse and galley. Pieces of planking from the deck were lashed across some spars stuck upright into the snow, and this, with the ship's binnacle, formed an excellent look-out from which to look for seals and penguins. On this platform, too, a mast was erected from which flew the King's flag and the Royal Clyde ...
— South! • Sir Ernest Shackleton
... the Waist to the Top of the Gunnel. They did all they could to keep her Head to the Sea, and setting up a small Jury-mast, to which they clapp'd a Top-gallant-yard, we again scudded, altogether ignorant where we were; for a Sea which pooped us the second Day, had carried away the Binnacle with the Two Compasses; and they either had not, or knew not, where to find another. We left our selves to the Mercy of the Sea and Wind, for we had no other Party to take; and tho' the former run Mountain-high, yet finding the Ship made no Water, the Captain ...
— A Voyage to Cacklogallinia - With a Description of the Religion, Policy, Customs and Manners of That Country • Captain Samuel Brunt
... place, which I once rather despised, looked most attractive when we came down towards it from the hills. I could see the beautiful, white Snowbird at anchor, looking very small, and the sunlight played on the brass binnacle which shone like a burning light. Near it, very lowly and humble, rode the poor little fishing smacks that are far more important to the world's welfare than our expensive plaything. The crop of drying cod was spread out on the flakes, as usual, and tiny specks of women and children ...
— Sweetapple Cove • George van Schaick
... looked into, and then behind it, in hopes of finding the monster which was exaggerating their hideous gestures. A watch was held to the ear of one of them; and he, supposing it alive, asked if it was good to eat. On being shown the glass of the skylight and binnacle, they touched it, and desired to know what kind of ...
— Travels in North America, From Modern Writers • William Bingley
... at the second mate's door, went upon deck to light another lamp at the binnacle, it having been again accidentally extinguished. He was there asked by his terrified brother, whose agony of mind we will not attempt to portray, if he intended to hurt Smith, the other boat-steerer. He ...
— A Narrative of the Mutiny, on Board the Ship Globe, of Nantucket, in the Pacific Ocean, Jan. 1824 • William Lay
... runners clash with the rocks, and I see Dr. Hingston's lantern (he always would have a lantern), bobbing about like the binnacle light of an oyster sloop, very loose in a choppy sea. Therefore I do not laugh the winds to scorn as much ...
— The Complete Works of Artemus Ward, Part 4 • Charles Farrar Browne
... give any other sailing directions for going up this port, than to run cautiously, with a boat ahead and the plan upon the binnacle. Both the bottom and shoals are usually a mixture of sand, with mud or clay; but in the northern entrance, and off some of the upper points and islands where the tides run strong, the ground ...
— A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2 • Matthew Flinders
... tremendous sea broke over the ship, tearing away all her upper works, and sweeping the captain and six of the sailors overboard. The water poured in torrents into the cabins, and drove every one from the berths. The bulwarks, boats, and binnacle were carried clean off, and the mainmast had to be cut away. The sailors then turned the ship about, and after a long and dangerous voyage, succeeded in bringing her, dismasted as she was, into ...
— A Woman's Journey Round the World • Ida Pfeiffer |
