stevenson-the merry men

[serhanbener]

Certainly it was with a spirit somewhat over-shadowed that I turned away from the grave to the hardly less melancholy spectacle of the wreck. Her stem was above the first arc of the flood; she was broken in two a little abaft the foremast--though indeed she had none, both masts having broken short in her disaster; and as the pitch of the beach was very sharp and sudden, and the bows lay many feet below the stern, the fracture gaped widely open, and you could see right through her poor hull upon the farther side.



What is a "pitch of the beach"?

What is the meaning of "though indeed"?

What is the meaning of "her poor hull upon the farther side."?Does it simply mean "stern was over the water. There was a big gap near the stern and throgh this hole the other side could be seen"?

[B. Laumness]

Post in the thread that you created about the same subject instead of making another thread.

[Whifflingpin]

"pitch" = "slope" in this case. The shore sloped steeply, so that the ship was lying with one end much higher than the other. Its bow (the front end) was pointing towards the sea, and was just above the water's edge.

"though indeed" = "although, in fact," - the writer says that the ship was broken behind the foremast, and then uses those particular joining words to correct or clarify the statement. As the masts had broken off short, "abaft the foremast" must be taken to mean "behind the stump of the foremast" or "behind the place where a sailor would expect to see a foremast."

"the fracture widely open" The fracture is the break just abaft the foremast, i.e about a third of the ship's length from the bow. The ship was almost broken in two, from top to bottom and side to side, so that the front part was almost separated from the back part, and you could see right through the gap on both sides.

(Note: you've flipped "stem" to "stern" - the stem is the very front part of the hull, i.e. the vertical timber or edge that cuts through the water. The bows are the front part of the ship, from the stem to the foremast, more or less. The stern is the back. There is a phrase "from stem to stern" that means "the whole ship.")

[serhanbener]

Many Thanks for your help.