Friday, October 23, 2020

Dazzle camouflage | plan and photographs compared

In an earlier post, we talked about the ship camouflage diagrams of Washington DC designer Steve Morris. He continues to produce striking, exact interpretations of World War I “dazzle” ship camouflage plans. They are irresistable to the eye, as witnessed by those that are posted online. Easily, one of my favorites is the Type 2 Lake Class Design, the two sides of which (port and starboard) are shown below.

A few days ago, while nosing on the internet, I ran across two WWI-era photographs of a particular American ship to which this pattern was applied. Shown below are two different views of the port side of the ship, the USS Lake Harney (c1918). I have yet to find photographs of the starboard side.