What happen really when a low rumble come?

What happen really when a low rumble come?

For this text:
There came a low rumble, which distorted the cabin around her, and cast an
oily sheen on the walls.
Could you tell me that what happened really here as the above text says?In
this way?---
There came a low rumble,then distorted the cabin?(can't not post images
for low reputations here)----
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sigkyrre/3772790699/sizes/m/in/photostream/
(let's suppose that's the cabin of the ship on the picture...)
and then?---
http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g60982-d104386-i25298922-USS_Arizona_Memorial-Honolulu_Oahu_Hawaii.html#25298918
(let's suppose that's the walls on the picture. And an oily sheen on the
walls like this on the picture?)
Can it really happen like this? A sound as a low rumble can be so powerful
to distort the cabin slightly?
Thank you in advance!
The context is :
"I can see nothing." There came a low rumble, which distorted the cabin
around her, and cast an oily sheen on the walls. "Watch."



Excerpted from Aliette de Bodard's novel "The Two Sisters in Exile"
partly(maybe you needn't read these words) :
"We're here," The Tortoise in the Lake said, cutting across Dong Huong's
gloomy thoughts.
"I can see nothing."
There came a low rumble, which distorted the cabin around her, and cast an
oily sheen on the walls. "Watch."
Outside, everything was dark. There was only the shadow of The Two Sisters
in Exile, the dead ship that they'd been pulling since Longevity Station.



More partly excerpted from Aliette de Bodard's novel "The Two Sisters in
Exile" (maybe you needn't read these words) :
For the Northerners, however, everything would be different.
"We're here," The Tortoise in the Lake said, cutting across Dong Huong's
gloomy thoughts.
"I can see nothing."
There came a low rumble, which distorted the cabin around her, and cast an
oily sheen on the walls. "Watch."
Outside, everything was dark. There was only the shadow of The Two Sisters
in Exile, the dead ship that they'd been pulling since Longevity Station.
It hung in space, forlorn and pathetic, like the corpse of an old woman;
although Dong Huong knew that it was huge, and could have housed her
entire lineage without a care.
"I see nothing," Dong Huong said, again. The ground rumbled beneath her,
even as her ears popped with pressure –more laughter from The Tortoise in
the Lake, even as the darkness of space focused and narrowed – became the
shadow of wings, the curve on vast surfaces – the hulls of two huge ships
flanking them; thin, sharp, like a stretch of endless walls – making The
Tortoise in the Lake seem small and insignificant, just as much as Dong
Huong herself was small and insignificant in comparison to her own ship.