Thursday, January 11, 2024

first get stewed then come aboard and paint the ship

Above Anon, illustration of a World War I dazzle-camouflaged ship, from The Illustrated War News (AI colorized).

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Frank Ward O’Malley, The Widow’s Mite and the Liberty Loan, in The New York Sun, April 21, 1918, p. 12—

Astern of the gray transport steams another ship, the second vessel crazily camouflaged—as if the skipper had said to a boss painter, “Mike, you and your whole crew go ashore and get stewed to the eyes and then come aboard again and paint this ship as you see fit.”