C A M O U P E D I A: you could spot a ship's nationality by her camouflage

Amco Bulletin (February 1919)

CAMOUFLAGE initially published in the Emergency Fleet News, as reprinted in the Amco Bulletin (February 1919), pp. 78-80—

Purpose of bizarre patterns painted over hull and super-structure was not to obscure vessel but to make its outlines confusing; convoy greatly lessened risk of submarine attack and increased danger for enemy.

With the cessation of fighting "on land, on the sea and in the air," the veil of secrecy that screened the movements of shipping during the war is lifted by the United States Shipping Board, which has issued a statement written by one of the officers of a merchant ship, telling how a convoy was managed, and how a group of camouflaged ships looked at sea.

Convoy and camouflage are the two devices that enabled the merchant marine to baffle the pirate hidden beneath the wave. The navy completed the job by protecting the merchantmen with destroyers and furnishing them with guns and gunners.

Describes Devices
The Shipping Board officer's description of these two war devices begins with the ship's departure from New York, and is as follows:

"Once out in the stream we headed down the channel for the lightship, beyond which our convoy and escorts were waiting. All were slowly under way. The leading ships took their places, and after a few minutes confusion the other ships of the convoy got into place.

"Guarded above by dirigibles, hydroplanes and anchored balloons, and on the surface by a fleet of patrol boats as well as our ocean escort, we proceeded. At sunset we were well out to sea.

"It is not hard to see why the convoy system was effective. Take the case of a convoy of 25 ships. When these ships went in convoy, instead of there being 25 different units scattered all over the 'zone' for the U-boats to find, there was only one. That is, the Hun had only one chance of meeting a ship where he had 25 before. And if he did meet the convoy he found it usually with a naval escort whose sole business was sinking submarines.

"He found, too, 25 lookouts on watch for him, 25 sets of guns ready for him, where there was but one each before. If the Hun showed himself to a convoy and its escort the odds were that he was due for a quick trip to the bottom.

"The usual convoy formation was in columns in a rough square. This was the most compact, and the inside ships were practically immune from attack. The escorts circled the convoy, if necessary, and the outside ships concentrated their fire on any submarine that appeared.

"Convoys were made up at different speeds, and even the rustiest old trams were provided for, in a 6-knot class.

"In spite of this, some captains' imaginations always tacked a couple of knots to their ships' speed. There seemed to be a nautical version of 'Home, Sweet Home' —be it ever so humble, there's no ship like mine, and vessels making 9 knots on Broadway make a bare 7 off Fire Island. These were the fellows who were always falling back, slowing up the convoy, and bringing gray hairs to the heads of naval escort commanders.

"It was remarkable what a snappy escort commander could do with his charges. After a day or two together he had them maneuvering in position like a second Grand Fleet; many zig-zagging 'dark' through a black night, not a ray of light showing anywhere, if they were in the danger zone, or a tin fish was reported near.

"The war brought no stranger spectacle than that of a convoy of steamers plowing along through the ocean streaked and bespotted with every color of the rainbow in a way more bizarre than the wildest dreams of a sailor's first night ashore.

"Every American ship going across was ordered camouflaged. The Allies had similar orders. So one seldom saw a ship at sea, except a neutral, that was not camouflaged. After a good look at them you could see why the sea-serpent had the best season last summer he has had since Baron Munchausen died.

"Most people seem to think the purpose of marine camouflage was the same as that of the land camouflage the army used for its guns. That idea is quite mistaken. The purpose of marine camouflage was not to decrease the ship's visibility at sea-indeed, the bright whites often used in camouflage sometimes made a ship more prominent than a neutral gray world.

"The purpose of the camouflage was to deceive the submarine as to the true course of the ship in the distance. It figured out her course and speed in order to choose the right time and place to come up or put its periscope up and fire the torpedo. If deceived as to its intended victim's course, it came up in the wrong place, where it could not get off a torpedo successfully and was, perhaps, discovered.

"The effect of good camouflage was remarkable. I have often looked at a fellow ship in the convoy sailing on our quarter on exactly the same course we were, but on account of her camouflage she seemed to be making right for us on a course at least 45 degrees different from the one she was actually steering.

"The deception was remarkable even under such conditions as these and, of course, a U-boat with its hasty, limited observation, was much more likely to be fooled.

"Each nation seemed to have a characteristic type of camouflage, and after a little practice you could usually spot a ship's nationality by her style of camouflage long before you could make out her ensign."

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Saturday, August 9, 2025

you could spot a ship's nationality by her camouflage