So, as I write, I often use [square brackets] as place holders for things I need to look up later. This offers you the opportunity to play MadLibs with my work in progress.
- A cheer went up from a crowd of sailors bunched around the [part of ship]
- An enclosed [type of carriage] with a matched pair, awaited them. It was [description] in the older style, but still in good repair.
- A sailor stood a few feet away, working at [some ship business].
- “Tell the [guy in the pantry] that you have a delicate stomach.”
- “Cook has promised [something] for dinner.”
Tea cozy; mazurka; mincing; crewel; blaggart; lushery and muck snipes.
main mast; Rockaway carriage; fitted with curtains rather than glass; Bubba Gump Shrimp, Co.; Harry Potter; chocolate grasshoppers
I like how you start out with serious suggestions and then descend into nonsense.
Anchor, horse drawn carriage, elegant, hauling barrels, salmon cleaner, buttered grapes
poop (low-hanging fruit, I know)
pram; 8-bit
swabbing the poop
murderer
pan-galactic gargle blasters
Figuretail
Pumpkin
Enchanted
Some scrimshaw
Sommelier
Ships biscuit with weevils
foc’sle head; dormeuse (let’s say “dormouse” for fun); sling-sprung and lacquered an egregious shade of red; picking oakum; sneak-thief posing as a footman; creamed herring (maybe we should adjourn to a pub, instead.)
Foc’sl
Brougham/trimmed
Coiling the lines
Cabin boy
Either chef’s surprise or fresh catch of the day. (Though Midshipman Roberts has reported his boots missing, so I suspect we may be having filet of sole.)
O tempora, o madlibsi:
BC 400: catapult / chariot / bronze-wheeled / ethopian / crocodile hash
AD 1800: capstan / coach / turntable front wheels / invalid / salted meat
AD 2000: MTAC / Humvee / unarmoured / jerk / MRE
SA 500 (Space Age => After Gagarin, see Quantum Vibe):
flux capacitor / bubble / rated for low radiation use, / mutant / puce pills
For the latter two, the obvious question is: …with a matched pair .. of what?