USS West Mahomet in First World War dazzle camouflage
Ship camouflage is a form of military deception in which a ship is painted in one or more colors in order to obscure or confuse an enemy's visual observation. Several types of marine camouflage have been used or prototyped: blending or crypsis, in which a paint scheme attempts to hide a ship from view; deception, in which a ship is made to look smaller or, as with the Q-ships, to mimic merchantmen; and dazzle, a chaotic paint scheme which tries to confuse any estimate of distance, direction, or heading. Counterillumination, to hide a darkened ship against the slightly brighter night sky, was trialled by the Royal Canadian Navy in diffused lighting camouflage.
Ships were sometimes camouflaged in classical times. Mediterranean pirate ships were sometimes painted blue-gray for concealment. Vegetius records that Julius Caesar's scout ships were painted bluish-green when gathering intelligence along the coast of Britain during the Gallic Wars. Ships were sometimes painted deceptively during the Age of Sail, while both sides in the American Civil War camouflaged their ships, whether to run blockades or for night reconnaissance.
Ship camouflage was used in earnest by the British Admiralty in the First World War. The marine artist Norman Wilkinson led research into dazzle camouflage, resulting in the painting of thousands of British and later American ships in dazzle patterns. He intended it not to make ships invisible, nor even to cause the enemy to miss his shot, but to deceive him into taking up a poor firing position. In the Second World War, dazzle was revisited by the Royal Navy and the United States Navy, and applied to a limited extent by other navies.
After the Second World War, radar made painted camouflage less effective, though inshore craft continue to use camouflage schemes alongside anti-radar stealth.
Shipcamouflage is a form of military deception in which a ship is painted in one or more colors in order to obscure or confuse an enemy's visual observation...
Dazzle camouflage, also known as razzle dazzle (in the U.S.) or dazzle painting, is a family of shipcamouflage that was used extensively in World War...
Naval Research Laboratory began studies and tests on low visibility shipcamouflage. Research continued through World War II to (1) reduce visibility by...
as camouflage officers. Shipcamouflage developed via conspicuous dazzle camouflage schemes during WWI, but since the development of radar, ship camouflage...
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or...
presented his own shipcamouflage plan to the US government. According to existing records, he argued that it is “impossible to make a ship invisible from...
Diffused lighting camouflage was a form of active camouflage using counter-illumination to enable a ship to match its background, the night sky, that was...
Active camouflage or adaptive camouflage is camouflage that adapts, often rapidly, to the surroundings of an object such as an animal or military vehicle...
primarily known as a marine artist. During World War I, he designed shipcamouflage for the U.S. Navy, under the direction of Everett L. Warner. Waugh...
Camouflage is the concealment of animals or objects of military interest by any combination of methods that helps them to remain unnoticed. This includes...
high-difference camouflage, which was not unlike what British shipcamouflage designer Norman Wilkinson would call dazzle camouflage (a term that may...
Marine camouflage may refer to: Underwater camouflage in marine animals, by any of a variety of methods Shipcamouflage, including dazzle camouflage and...
during World War I, he was a major contributor to the development of shipcamouflage in the United States, as well as an early practitioner of the use of...
lungfishes. He was involved in shipcamouflage in the First World War, and through his pupil Hugh B. Cott influenced military camouflage thinking in the Second...
Disruptive coloration (also known as disruptive camouflage or disruptive patterning) is a form of camouflage that works by breaking up the outlines of an...
as well as modification kits and consumables such as signals and shipcamouflage. On August 16, 2011, the company website of Wargaming, developer and...
research on art, architecture, and camouflage. Bobolink Books. ISBN 978-0971324466. (2012) Ship shape: a dazzle camouflage sourcebook. Bobolink Books. ISBN 978-0971324473...
Aircraft camouflage is the use of camouflage on military aircraft to make them more difficult to see, whether on the ground or in the air. Given the possible...
Line ship with a similar camouflage colour disappearing from sight, he applied the colour to his own ships, believing the colour would render his ships difficult...
Scott is credited with designing the Western Approaches shipcamouflage scheme, which disguised ship superstructures. In July 1940, he managed to get the...
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