Coffee Break
Member
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2022
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Korean
- Home Country
- South Korea
- Current Location
- South Korea
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.
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.