PAINTING WARSHIPS

Evening Star, Issue 20255, 16 August 1929, Page 7

PAINTING WARSHIPS

OLD-TIME METHODS Until Nelson’s time there was no uniformity in the painting of the exteriors of warships; captains used their own discretion and choice in the matter. The general colour scheme adopted -was—along the water-line, just above the copper sheathing, there was a wide black streak running right round the hull as high as the lower gun deck. Above this the sides were yellow or light brown. The after upper works above the gun decks and tho outer sides of the poop were painted bright red or blue; a band of red or pale blue edged with' gold ran round the forecastle, and continued down the beak to the figure head. The ships of Lord Howe’s fleet in 1791 (writes a correspondent to the London 1 Sunday Times ’) appear to have been painted externally as follows- The side of the ship above -the copper sheathing was a dull brown, the tiers of gun decks a pale yellow, and

the lids of the gtraports brown like the sides of the ship. The gilded scrollwork at bow and stern was as usual v The arrangement favoured by Nelson, known as the “Nelson chequer,” was:. Black sides and gunports, and yellow streaks to mark each gun deck; this arrangement was at first only used by those snips which had taken part in the actions of the Nile and Trafalgar; in time it became the system-adopted throughout the Royal Navy. Some years after Trafalgar the yellow colour gave way to white, and until wooden warships became obsolete the familiar black and white chequer was the regulation colour scheme throughout the service. ;• Internally the sides of the ships were painted blood red, for obvious reasons; the inner sides of the gunports were painted this colour, and when these ports were triced up, the brown, black, or yellow of the ship’s side was diversified with scarlet squares. ..After Trafalgar the interiors of_ ships of war were sometimes painted in other colours according to the taste of the captain—a favourite colour was white for the bulwarks and beams and green for the waterwavs. All white became the rule after 1810, ;