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 … More USN submarine camouflage experiments – 1915-6.
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 … More Frederick Alexander Paula
French cargo ship Amiral Nielly – port side These are 2 more examples of French WWI Ship Camouflage. The colors may not be precise, but I believe they are good close approximations. I know the colors used include black, white, dark blue, light blue, brown, green, and dark grey. Both ships were operated by the … More More examples of French WW I Camouflage
Portugal WWI camouflage I wrote about Brazilian ship camouflage in an earlier post. It seemed natural to follow it with something about Portugal because the 2 countries share a common language. There is even a special term form people who speak Portuguese. They are called lusophones. Prior to the outbreak of war Portugal had arguments … More Portugal WWI Camouflage
Color photography was still in it’s infancy during the First World War. There are a lot of photographs of ships. But they are always black and white. I mention this problem in my book, The Easter Egg Fleet. But there’s another aspect. Many artists today try to add color to their versions of those old … More WWI Ship Camouflage colors in on line photographs.
American ship camouflage in the First World War. This is the name of my new book. It will be available in a few months. I’ll post again when it is finally available. The cover picture is a colorized version of USS Isabel painted in a Mackay design.
In a previous post I mentioned how women helped with camouflage in World War One. haven’t ever seen any evidence that any woman designed camouflage patterns in that war. But I did run across an item that showed at least one female actually put her artistic abilities to use in the field of ship camouflage. … More A real woman camouflage artist
In the First World War, when everyone was painting their ships in order to confuse German submarine captains who might be targeting them, even the Italians developed some camouflage patterns of their own. This one is the Italian passenger liner “America”. She got her own disguise in 1918 and an American Aide for Information documented … More Italys America
Women only received the right to vote after the First World War. In Britain it came in 1918. In the United States it occurred in 1920.The pressures of war resulted in many places off the battlefield becoming sites where women could contribute to the war effort. Camouflage was one such field. The Royal Navy established … More Women helped with WWI camouflage
Wetherhorn 