........_Beaufort_
_Saxonia_.................._Savannah_.
_Staatsskretar_............_Samoa_.
_Vaterland_................_Leviathan_.
_Vogensen_................._Quincy_.
[Footnote 1: Is not this rather a reflection upon a perfectly good
American city?]
CHAPTER XI
Camouflage--American System of Low Visibility and the British Dazzle
System--Americans Worked Out Principles of Color in Light and Color in
Pigment--British Sought Merely to Confuse the Eye--British System
Applied to Some of Our Transports
While our naval vessels, that is to say war-ships, have adhered to the
lead-gray war paint, the Navy Department has not declined to follow the
lead of the merchant marine of this country and Great Britain in
applying the art of camouflage to some of its transports, notably to the
_Leviathan_, which, painted by an English camoufleur, Wilkinson, fairly
revels in color designed to confuse the eyes of those who would attack
her. A great deal has been written about land camouflage, but not so
much about the same art as practised on ships. Originally, the purpose
was the same--concealment and general low visibility--at least it was so
far as the Americans were concerned. The British, on the other hand,
employed camouflage with a view to distorting objects and fatiguing the
eye, thus seriously affecting range-finding. The British system was
known as the "dazzle system," and was opposed to the American idea of so
painting a vessel as to cause it to merge into its background.
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