There was an old-world appearance about Kirkwall reminiscent of the time When Norse and Danish galleys plied Their oars within the Firth of Clyde, When floated Haco's banner trim Above Norwegian warriors grim, Savage of heart and huge of limb.
Spanish man-of-war came unseen through the mist of the harbour, and despatched a well-armed crew with muffled oars to plunder and burn the town of Penryn.
In addition to sails, they were propelled with oars manned by slaves; and a similar class of ship worked by convicts was used by the French down to the middle of the eighteenth century.
I'm inclined that way myself," said Jackman, who had been pulling hard at one of the oars up to that time.
And half blinded and choked with it, yet grateful, they took up their oars and rowed away south till they were a safe distance from the anchored ships.
Then bending to their oars again, they were soon behind the promontory.
As they sat watching for the boat, hearing the rhythmical and unseen plash of oars getting nearer, this struck Kanaris.
They told me that when they had taken the skipper off they intentionally left the oars in the boat.
In vain, Amid the boisterous laughter of the quays, A pinnace dashed in hot pursuit and met A roaring breaker and came hurtling back With oars and spars all trailing in the foam, A tangled mass of wreckage and despair.
Far, far away, do their hearts resume the story That never on earth was told, When all those urgent oars on the waste of glory Cast up its gold?
So the Giant Gilling, who was good-natured and stupid, got into a boat, and being very lazy, allowed the dwarfs to take the oars and row where they would.
Thorsten had a famous swift ship, called Ellida, which was rowed by fifteen men on each side, and each oar required the strength of two men to pull it; but Frithiof was so strong that he would row two oars at once.
We seemed to be suspended in mid-air, and only when the dipping oars made rings could we realise that anything sustained us.
To the whispering plash of the oars they moved from sunlight into twilight, from twilight into darkness.
But the oars had scarcely dropped into the water before dark, tapering, serpentine ropes had bound them, and were about the rudder; and creeping up the sides of the boat with a looping motion came the suckers again.
At that all four men, greatly excited, began beating the water with oars and shouting, and immediately they saw a tumultuous movement among the weeds.
The men gripped their oars and pulled, but it was like trying to move a boat in a floating raft of weeds.
They had told us of the canyon and of the rapids, and as we pulled at the oars and battled with the mosquitoes, we wondered when the danger was coming, how we would fare through it when it came.
Hardly had the doubled bow crew taken a stroke when all drew in their oars and ran back to be out of danger.
There sat a hopeless-looking little man at the clumsy oars of a flat-bottomed boat.
Little Baptiste plunged his oars in and made for a clump of deals floating in the eddy near his own shore.
Left alone in the clumsy boat, Bedell stretched with the long, heavy oars for his own shore, making appearance of strong exertion.
Suddenly he made a new motion; the gang behind drew in their oars and ran hastily forward to double the force in front.
Struck with astonishment, Selkirk puts his foot on the helm, and seizes his oars; but oars are powerless to move so heavy a machine.
When the wave had entirely raised his barque, aiding himself with one of the longoars to propel it over the rocky bottom, he gained the sea.
As the line attached to the harpoon drew the boat instantly off, the crew threw some of their oars towards him for his support, one of which he fortunately seized.
Her crew had seen the trouble in the Hillton shell, and, whatever their emotions were, they were now confident of success, for a three-length lead and eight oars to seven spelled victory for the Blue.
There was no long, rhythmic swing of the oars now; there was nothing inspiring to the spectators in the quick, dashing movements of the sweeps; all seemed without system, incoherent.
As they paddled slowly up the river a sound of distant cheering reached them, and at a command from Keene they rested upon their oars and glanced up-stream and across to the St. Eustace boat-house.
Listen for the rattle of the oars in the locks, men; you’re beastly ragged!
The oars dug into the water venomously, swirled through, emerged dripping and flashing, disappeared again.
His blade went under for a hard, desperate stroke, and the next moment seven bodies were straining at the oars in a last, heroic endeavor.
Keene, and the first squad lifted their dripping oars from the water and the shell approached the float silently, easily.
Then the first squad was released and the second was given a few minutes instruction in watermanship, merely taking their places in the boat, handling the oars and paddling to and fro about the float.
Then the shell floated alongside, was seized by those on the float, and the oars were unlocked.
It wasn’t all rowing; often the men leaned motionless over their oars while Kirk from the deck of the little Terrible talked to them for a quarter of an hour at a time on the error of their way.
At a little distance up-stream the St. Eustace shell made a wide turn, the eight rowers for a moment resting upon their oars and sending a hearty cheer across the blue water.
In response eight blue-clad bodies bent and strained in an endeavor to place their shell beside Hillton’s, and eight blue-tipped oars flashed swiftly back and forth.
The plunging dips of the eight crimson-bladed oars ceased.
With seven oars instead of eight, with a boat that listed plainly to bow-side, they were gaining!
The oars were to project also through leather bags, giving freedom of motion and yet excluding the water.
Then "oars out," lest a hole should be knocked through the boat's bottom by some part of the wreckage, and every rower strained his utmost to get clear of her.
They must give it up for this time; the very oars are blown from the row-locks and out of the men's hands.
And in many old military treatises the substitution of wheels for oars is mentioned.
And again, in 1760, a Swiss clergyman published a pamphlet in London, in which oars worked with springs were to be used, and the expansive power of gunpowder was to be used to bend the springs.
A shirt was hoisted for a signal, and the oars were zealously plied.
I was in her then; and, while suspended midway between fire and water, she turned keel up, and her oars were thrown out.
When it resulted in one of theoars being torn from the grasp of its holder, and cast adrift into the sea, Daley uttered a heart-rending groan.
I can make rude oars of some of the driftwood and the front seat," he calculated.
From the adjacent wharves came the soft washing and whispering of the tide, with an occasional rattle of oars as a boat came to land from one of the many ships.
The only sound beside the rattle of our oars was the metallic note of a pigeon in the high tree, which I mistook then and afterwards for the sound of a horn.
Boca; and when we got within twenty yards of the low-browed arch our crew lay on their oars and held a consultation, of which there could but be one result.
The helm is broken, the oars refuse their service, and the very portion of my nature that was steel and iron, most resistlessly obeys the attraction of the magnet, and really assists in making keel and deck spring asunder.
When our boat's mighty, whale-like hull suddenly arose out of the water, right in their midst, a panic seized them again and quickly they grasped their oars in order to try to flee.
Not until I waved from the tower to them with my handkerchief and cap did they rest on their oars and come over to us.
The oars bent lithe as willow-switches, a moment they skimmed on the caps, a moment were hid in the snow of the spray.
At length Dan took the oars again, and every now and then he paused to let us float along with the tide as it slacked, and take the sense of the night.
We did not need a second bidding; the size of the fish was so great that we felt more excited than we had yet been during the voyage, so we bent our oars till we almost pulled the boat out of the water.
I thought that every man, of course, had been killed; but one after another their heads appeared in the midst of blood and foam, and they struck out for oars and pieces of the wreck.
It was fast to a fish, and two oars were set up on end to attract our attention.
In a few minutes my comrades saw me, and, with a cheer put out the oars and began to row towards me.
For one moment I thought it was all over with us, but we were soon out of immediate danger, and lay on our oars watching the writhings of the wounded monster as he lashed the ocean into foam.
His head was bandaged by Bluenose in a rough and ready fashion; a couple of oars with a sail rolled round them were quickly procured, and on this he was borne off the beach, followed by his friends and a crowd of sympathisers.
As the oars were about to be shipped, one of the crew stumbled, and struck his head so violently against the bollard, that he fell stunned into the bottom of the boat.
Lights danced about, the sound of oars was heard in various directions, and sharp eager shouts, as of men who felt that life was in danger, but knew not where to hasten in order to afford aid.
The sails of the lifeboat had already been lowered, and the oars were out in a second.
Here they were obliged to put out the oars and exercise the utmost caution, lest they should incur the fate from which they had come out to rescue others.
One of their largest boats was launched through the wild surf, as if by magic, and its stout crew were straining at the oars as if their lives depended on the result.
The canvas is as strong as can be, and it can't be so many years since these oars were marked with a hot iron.
Yes, we could use the oars or hook to fend her off.
His hands were enormous, and looked as if they had grown into the form most suitable for grasping a pair of oars to tug a boat against a heavy sea.
Now then, silence, and let's get the oars across and each take his place on the thwarts, ready to row hard if we are seen.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "oars" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
