There were interminable hard acres of the pink round scuttles and on gun shields, whole fields on sides and top hamper

[Coffee Break]

Hello everyone. I encountered this expression, "There were interminable hard acres of the pink round scuttles and on gun shields, whole fields on sides and top hamper", and I am wondering how it is connected to the previous sentence:

They called that paint Barmaid’s Blush and splashed on gallons with the inexpert and casual hand of the wartime sailor. The colour was supposed to merge a ship into the sea and air at the perilous hour of dawn. There were interminable hard acres of the pink round scuttles and on gun shields, whole fields on sides and top hamper, hanging round the hard angles, the utilitarian curves, the grudgingly conceded living quarters of ships on the Northern Patrol, like pink icing or the coral growths on a washed rock.

- William Golding, Pincher Martin, Chapter 7

This is a novel published in the United Kingdom in 1956. The novel mainly follows the state of mind of a sailor called Christopher "Pincher" Martin, a temporary naval lieutenant. He was in the Atlantic Ocean when his ship sank. He swam until he found an island. He is now looking at a coralline substance in the sea, and remembering the paint the sailors would use on the ship.

Here, I wonder what the underlined part would mean.
(1) By "interminable hard acres of the pink," would that mean "endless stiff pink paint that was used over acres of surface...?
(2) By "whole fields on sides and top hamper, would that mean "whole surfaces on the sides of the ship, and on the top hamper (=rigging, cables, spars on the upper decks)"...? Or, would that mean "whole surfaces on the sides of the ship, and top hamper (because there is no "field/surface" for top hamper)"...?

I would very much appreciate your help.

 

[emsr2d2]

@Coffee Break - can we ask you to limit the number of posts you're making, please? At the moment, of the 20 threads on page 1 of this sub-forum, nine of them are yours!

 

[Tarheel]

You have indicated that you are on chapter seven of that book, so you know the context much better than anybody who hasn't read the book.

Ask yourself what interpretation makes the most sense.

(You want to know what it means, not what it would mean.)

 

[Coffee Break]

@emsr2d2 and @Tarheel,

Thank you very much for the comments.
I am sorry, I have probably posted too much. I would slow down my pace.

My guess is that "interminable hard acres" can mean that the paint is hardened to be stiff over acres of surfaces.
My question is just that whether it would be okay to understand that the sentence breaks like this:

There were interminable hard acres of the pink/ round scuttles and on gun shields,/ whole fields on sides and top hamper,
To mean the pink settled round scuttles and gun shields, and on whole fields on sides of the ship and on whole fields of top hamper.

Or perhaps, like this:
whole fields on sides/ and top hamper,
To mean that the "whole fields" are only applied to "sides."

 

[Tarheel]

The only thing I know for sure is there are quite a few nautical terms used in that book. If I knew the meaning any of any of them I might br able to comment on how you have used them.

 

[Tdol]

They painted parts of the boats pink as some sort of camouflage.