It shows an NYC municipal police boat that has presumably been camouflaged using a method first proposed by muralist and interior designer William Andrew Mackay. I’ve written about Mackay extensively in an online essay titled “Optical Science Meets Visual Art: The Camouflage Experiments of William Andrew Mackay.” This early method is also detailed in a patent application, submitted on September 4, 1917, as US Patent No. 1,305,296, “Process of Rendering Objects Less Visible Against Background.”
The text of the original news article reads as follows—
All New York City police boats are now being painted with a blue and green motif, which, when any distance away, causes the boats to appear to merge into the dark waters of the bay and river. It is said that at night is is almost impossible to distinguish the outline of the craft which guards the waters and keeps its eye on docks and shipping.
RELATED LINKS
Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? / Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage / Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage / Optical science meets visual art / Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness / Under the big top at Sims' circus
