alfred-borden:

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

Would you call me an aged man-o-war, doctor? The Surprise is not old; no one would call her old. She has a bluff bow, lovely lines. She’s a fine seabird: weatherly, stiff and fast… very fast, if she’s well handled. No, she’s not old; she’s in her prime.

clarabosswald:

“What did he call it?” she whispered.

 “An alethiometer.”

 There was no point in asking what that meant. It lay heavily in her hands, the crystal face gleaming, the
golden body exquisitely machined. It was very like a clock, or a compass, for there were hands pointing
to places around the dial, but instead of the hours or the points of the compass there were several little
pictures, each of them painted with extraordinary precision, as if on ivory with the finest and slenderest
sable brush. She turned the dial around to look at them all. There was an anchor; an hourglass
surmounted by a skull; a chameleon, a bull, a beehive…Thirty-six altogether, and she couldn’t even guess
what they meant