A
cabin or
berthing is an enclosed
room generally on a
ship or an
aircraft. A cabin which protrudes above the level of a ship's
deck may be referred to as a "deckhouse."
Sailing ships
Grand cabin on the
Grand Turk a replica of a three-masted English frigate.
In
sailing ships, the officers and paying passengers would have an individual or shared cabin.
The
captain or
commanding officer would occupy the "grand cabin" that normally spanned width of the
stern with large windows. On a warship it would be separated from the rest of the ship, and further subdivided into daytime and night-time cabins with movable panels that could be removed down in time of battle to leave the deck clear the whole length of the ship.
Modern warships
thumb|Bunks of aircraft carrier [[Clemenceau (R 98)|Clemenceau.]]
In most modern
warships the commanding officer has a main cabin, the
in-port cabin, often adjacent to the ship's central control room (
operations room), and a
sea cabin adjacent to the
bridge. Thus, when likely to be called from sleep or attending to administration, the CO can be at the Bridge or Ops room instantly. The sea cabin is sparsely equipped, containing just a bunk, a desk, and basic toilet facilities. The in-port cabin is more lavishly furnished, with separate bedroom and combination
sitting room/office, and more elaborate toiletry facilities.
For ships intended to act as
flagships, like the
aircraft carrier the
USS Lexington (CV-16), the admiral also has a sea cabin (adjacent to the captain's sea cabin) and an in-port cabin, in addition to the captain. Admiral Fletcher's sea cabin in the
USS Yorktown (CV-5) in the Second World War had a bed, an easy chair, a table, and a shower.
In the
Star Trek science fiction series, the captain's sea cabin is called the "ready room". (On real ships, the
ready room is in fact where flight squadron pilots "stand by" their
aeroplanes.)
Officers will normally have their own cabins, which doubles as their office. Some senior
petty officers may have a cabin for similar reasons.
Passenger ships
In ships carrying
passengers, they are normally accommodated in cabins, taking the terminology familiar to seafarers, although many cruise lines now prefer to refer to passenger cabins as staterooms or suites.
