US Submarine camouflage trials in 1916
There was interest in warship camouflage in the US that may have been started by the experience of the US Navy in the Spanish American War. One of the first artists to make his interest public was William A Mackay. Mackay had specific ideas about ship camouflage, and they were rooted in color perception. He even patented a scheme for such camouflage after the war, but the ideas were rooted in his experience from well before the beginning of the Great War in Europe.
America was still neutral when Mackay began contact with CDR J. O. Fischer. Fischer was the commander of a division of Atlantic Fleet submarines at the time. His division was built around 4 K class submarines. Plans were made for running a series of experiments to test the effect of several camouflage designs on the visibility of those submarines. The trials actually took place in Florida in 1916, after Fischer had already left command of submarine division 4.
Here is photo of the division taken during the trials, courtesy of pigboats.com. It is planned to appear in my book “The Easter Egg Fleet”.
The following drawings are taken from ones I made for Navsource.org several years ago.
Mackay went on to establish a school for aspiring artists to teach them how to camouflage ships. He was also selected as the head of camouflage offices in NY of the US Shipping Board subsidiary the Emergency Fleet Corporation. After the war he did the murals that cover the walls of the entrance to the Natural History Museum in New York City.
Oh, Yes, about those submarine camouflage ideas illustrated above. The trials in Florida established that a simple overall gray with black decks ans saddle tanks was the best choice.
Wetherhorn 