December 12, 1918 
LAND 6? WATER 
11 
MODEL OF THE " OLYMPIC " 
The false bow may be noted, also distortion and confusion of the bridge and general long 
lines of the hull, while the curves on the stern counteract normal curves of the ship. 
misapprehension about the aims and objects of camouflage 
at sea. Young ladies who have been spending a vacation 
> — well earned, no doubt, in some Whitehall office — upon the 
south coast have told me of marvellous camouflage they 
have seen. They said it had succeeded perfectly ; it looked 
just like a pile of rocks, or like a ship cut in two ; but it is 
scarcely necessary to point out that if a submarine saw a 
pile of rocks standing in the sea at some point where no 
rocks were charted, and no recent earthquake to account 
for so mysterious an appearance, he would promptly go and 
investigate ; and if, upon further inquiries, he discovered 
that this pile of rocks possessed two masts and a funnel, 
and made queer propeller-like noises in his hydrophone, 
I do not think that the camouflage had been successful if, 
upon closer inspection, it did not keep him deceived with 
regard to the actual course of the ship. Nor do I think a 
submarine would ignore the phenomenon of a ship cut in two 
and still proceeding gaily at the speed, let us s^, of ten 
knots without further submergence. Thus, to some extent, 
the romance goes out of the thing ; there is no attempt to 
produce a sort of sneaking wraith-like ship, nor yet un- 
■charted rocks ; the simple thing is to disguise, to confuse — 
in fact, to dazzle. 
It is curious how little the scheme has altered from its 
earliest conception. In Commander Wilkinson's first sub- 
mission to the Admiralty he seems to have grasped the whole 
scope of his idea. Subsequent work and experiments have 
only combined to prove him more right, and the sole result 
of the. experimentation of the last eighteen months has been 
towards the evolving of patterns more and more effective. 
His letter, written upon April 27th, 1917, enumerates all the 
objects which dazzle-painting still aims for. The scheme 
was approved by the Admiralty on May 23rd, and shortly 
after he began his first experimental ship. The Industry. 
The Industry was painted at Devon port in under forty-eight 
hours. At the same time there were two other experimental- 
ists working on the invisibility theory ; and, curiously 
,erfough, just as the final trials of their efforts, which had 
■covered weeks of labour, were pronounced failures, the 
newly painted Industry steamed above the liorizon. The 
contrast was too great. The scheme of dazzle-painting was 
approved, and first with a few transports, then with more, 
until finally the whole of the mercantile marine, all the 
ships engaged in convoy work, and a good many of the 
scouting cruisers and aeroplane carriers ; in fact, all tlie 
ships especially susceptible to submarine attack were painted. 
It is interesting to know that the pattern on The Industry 
was never changed, and right up to the end of the war, and 
running through quite dangerous seas, she escaped all 
torpedo attack. 
The chief drawback to dazzle-paintirg lay in its advantage. 
It became obvious to the German submarine commanders 
that a ship which was worth dazzle-painting was w(5rth 
attacking, and so a tendency would be created to estimate 
dazzle-painted ships as of superior value to those which yet 
remained grey, and so m;i,ke them more liable to concentrated 
attack from those more ambitious German captains who 
risked tlie difficulties of the task to gain a superior quarry. 
Thus at tliejearlier stages of the scheme it was exceedingly 
difficult to gain any real data about the actual sea value of 
the work, thougli constant reports from naval and merchant 
captains showed that in many cases great deception was 
caused by the painting — and, of course, German submarines 
captured would be exceedingly reluctant to admit its value 
in the almost inverse ratio of its real usefulness. The ramming 
of a submarine by the Olympic recently recounted in the 
papers, however, tends to prove the real value of dazzle, 
as also the growing imanimity of favour which it has found 
with merchant captains who are notoriously conservative in 
sea matters. In the case of the Olympic, it will be remem- 
bered that the submarine was discovered just under the 
bows of the ship. It may be judged from this that the 
commander had estimated that the ship was steering on, a 
much wider course. The dazzle-painting of the Olympic was 
designed to produce this effect. The design on the model 
of the Olympic here reproduced is a modern variant of the 
one she then carried. 
Now as to the method by which these weird schemes are 
evolved. It would obviously be impossible to make a' separate 
design for every one of the ships trading in the English mer- 
cantile marine, so they have been divided into a number of 
types — the type dependent upon certain marked differences 
in construction and length. These types covered more or 
less any variation of ship which could be found, and the 
dazzle officers at the various centres fitted these plans to 
the ships which came beneath their control. These types 
were modelled in wood about nine to twelve inches in length 
by three expert model makers. The models were then 
dazzled by the designers and tested in the theatre. This 
theatre consisted of a long sea-tinted platform in which were 
let turntables at various ranges, and at the back a canvas 
screen painted to approximate a normal sky value. At the 
observing end of the table a periscope permitted observations 
to be made as if from an actual submarine, and from the 
length of model and the distance of the turntable ranges were 
calculated. The model was tested, altered, tested again upon 
various bearings, till it was judged that a maximum amount 
of distortion and disguise had been produced, and then from 
the model transferred to a type plan by a large staff of lady 
artists. From the type plan the painting was carried out on 
the actual ship. In the case of special ships, special models 
had to be made. 
The success of dazzle-painting was sxich that it was adopted 
by the French and Italian Governments, and after a visit of 
Lieutenant-Commander Wilkinson to the United States, by 
the American Shipping Board. 
Of course, as time went on, and the practical results of the 
experimental work went on, design improved until, from the 
blobby effect of The Industry, Commander Wilkinson brought 
it to "the tigerish effect of the Olympic, which is one of the 
latest develo'pments. This does, to a certain extent, combine 
with the distortion an amount of low visibility ; but it 
must be insisted that the chase of actual invisibility is a 
mvth which will never be solved. 
