THE YARN OF THE NANCY BELL (Textbook Answers)

 

THE YARN OF THE NANCY BELL

1.     The man claimed to be the cook, the captain of the ship, the mate of Nancy brig, a boatswain, midshipmite and the crew of the ship called ‘Nancy’.

2.     The line in the poem which tells us that the man was generally unfortunate is: “And there on reef we come to grief / Which has often occurred to me.

3.     After the ship has struck the reef, there were only ten men left on the ship.

4.     The decided by drawing a lot as to who was to go first.

5.     The lines mean that they both would die, so one must survive, and the one who would die would lie on the other’s hold.

6.     The cook felt that he had more of a right to stay alive because he was a professional expert and he could cook better than the other.

7.     When the cook was pouring the ingredients like salt, pepper, chopped onion, sage and parsley and was mixing all these ingredients by continuously stirring those, the speaker stood silently behind him, covered the cook’s mouth and nose and threw him in the boiling pot. In the way, the cook met his end.

      The old sailor is unreliable because he deceived the cook by throwing him into the boiling pot from behind and thereby killed him.

 

B. Reference to the context:

1. And we argued it out as such

a. The speaker and the cook were arguing.

b. The argument between the cook and the old sailor was about who was to die first.

c. The word “sich” means such. The poet uses this word because it is suitable for a sailor’s way of speaking.

d. No, they did not want to argue because both the sailor and the cook worshipped one another.

e. The outcome of the argument is that the cook is killed by the old sailor.

2. When I ups with his heals…. In the scum of the boiling broth.

a. The sailor performs the act and the cook is the unfortunate victim.

b. The cook poured the following ingredients in the boiling broth – salt, pepper, chopped onion, sage and parsley.

c. The meaning of the underlined phrases and words are as follows:

Ups with his heals – Pick up his heals

Smothers – kill someone by covering the mouth or nose

Scum – froth