Frederick Alexander Pawla
One of the highly important, and largely forgotten, figures in the camouflage of US ships in the First World War was Frederick Alexander Pawla. Pawla was born in Scotland in 1876. He immigrated to the US and joined the US Navy when he was just 14 years old and not yet 5 feet tall. His enlistment expired in 1896.
By the time the US entered the First World War Frederick Pawla had been commissioned as an army Lieutenant and was assigned to the post of embarkation officer in New York. That job involved the scheduling, coordination, and supervision of ships that carried the US Army Expeditionary Force to France. It also meant he managed to schedule the painting of camouflage patterns on all types of ships that were involved. It was LT Pawla that arranged time at the various shipyards for painting camouflage patterns while the vessels were waiting to embark troops or load cargo before joining a convoy to cross the Atlantic.
There are records in the US National Archives showing the progress of application of camouflage patterns to various ships. One of the charts has handwritten notes next to the names of several vessels indicating they were camouflaged by Lt Pawla. Most of the entries have his name spelled “Paula”. The following ships are specifically credited as being camouflaged by him:
Arcadia, Bayano, Buford, City of Atlanta, Duca Degli Abruzzi, Hewitt, Kilpatrick, Montanian, Munwood, Pennsylvanian, Eagle, El Occidente, El Sol, Finland, Floridian, George H Henry, Hewitt, Itaska, Kentuckian, Edward Luckenback, Medina, Montosa, Newton, Neches, Oregonian, Rondo, Panaman, San Jacinto, Tamayo, Tiger, Tivives, Tungus, and Tyr.
The following illustrations show both typewritten and hand written credits for his work.
After the war Frederick Pawla retired from the army, studied art, moved to California, and became an artist and painter. The US Army register form 1951 shows him on the retired list as a reserve major with service number O-135931. A search on-line today would very likely not mention anything about his contribution to the war effort. It would, however, take note of his career as a painter. His works earned him entries in both Artists of the American West and Who Was Who in American Art. Frederick Pawla died on December 18th, 1964.
Wetherhorn 