Rosyth, UK
(Topical Press / Getty)
Unlike conventional camouflage, dazzle ship camouflage was not intended to conceal. Dazzle was adopted after 1917 as a means of impeding an enemy’s ability to track a ship’s speed, distance and course – a form of misdirection, on a grand scale.
More than 4,000 of the Allied ships, both British and American, were painted with dazzle during the First World War. Each ship had its own unique ‘fingerprint’ of color and shape, in order to avoid class of ship recognition by the enemy. Dazzle’s implementation was triggered by the large ship losses experienced against German unterseeboote (U-boats), though its effectiveness is still open to debate.
At the outbreak of the First World War, HMS Argus existed as an ocean liner undergoing construction, the SS Conte Rosso. Bought by the British Admiralty in 1916, the ship was renamed Argus and became the first conventional aircraft carrier, from launch at the end of 1917. The ship’s deck was of sufficient length to allow aircraft to both take off and to land. Argus’s flat appearance provided the nickname ‘the hatbox’. Serving up to and across the Second World War, the ship was sold for scrap in 1946.
‘Dodging the Kaiser’s U-boats was the favourite sport of His Majesty’s navy during the war and many schemes were resorted to in order to outwit the wiley foe. Chief among the successful ruses originated by officers and men of the fleet was the use of “dazzle” ships – ships camouflaged with fantastic patterns which bewildered the submarine commanders.’
Richmond Times, Virginia, September 14, 1919
