Jan Gordon and the Dazzle-Painting of Ships

 

Following my post in February 2013 on Jan Gordon's involvement in the design of dazzle patterns for WW1 ships, there have been some interesting new developments. Firstly, the BBC presented "How did an artist help Britain fight the war at sea" by Sam Willis and secondly, Roy Behrens posted on Jan Gordon's 1918 article in "Land & Water."

Jan Gordon's article elaborates on the distinction between camouflage designed to make an object blend in with its background and dazzle designed to confuse an attacker: " and so the word camouflage, with its associations, has been dropped in favour of the more appropriate word "dazzle-painting"". I illustrated this distinction in the February 2013 article by contrasting the daily camouflage activities of my pet cuttlefish ("Ramses") with the startling black and white "deimatic" patterns displayed during an escape from a perceived threat.

The article describes how Norman Wilkinson's letter to the Admiralty of April 27th 1917 enumerated "all the objects which dazzle-painting still aims for" and how the scheme was approved by the Admiralty on May 23rd. Work on the first experimental ship, "The Industry" began shortly afterwards.


"The Industry" was the first dazzle ship, painted at Davenport in under 48 hours. "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 later dazzle design on "The Olympic" illustrates the use of a false bow "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."

An incident in which "The Olympic" rammed a German submarine seemed to support the value of the dazzle patterns. "... 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."

Jan Gordon's article reports how the perceived "success of dazzle-painting was such 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."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jan and Cora Gordon and the Balkan Hat: Getting Published in World War I

Image
In " The London Roundabout " (1933),  Jan Gordon describes how they came to publish their first book, " The Luck of Thirteen " (for an overview of this and their subsequent books visit Jan and Cora Gordon Books ). Following the "famous retreat" from Serbia, they wrote, "Having reached London in rags, and lacking visible means of support, we were trying to capitalize our experiences. The sale of some photographs temporarily banished the wolf, at least round the corner, but to continue the good work Jo had written an article called A Woman's Day at the Montenegrin Front ." "JO AT THE MACHINE GUN" A friend sent them to see Dan Rider, who recommended they send it to the Westminster Gazette - "They'll eat it." "Eat it they did, and spewed it out again as print. From this manuscript and a few others grew our first travel-book." On showing sketches of Serbia to Cecil Chesterton, editor of the New
Read more

Jan Gordon's WW1 Dazzle design for H.M.S. Southampton

Image
Dazzle painting of ships has fascinated many since its first deployment during WW1, spawning numerous articles, books and imitations. The artist and writer Jan Gordon was one of the original protagonists; he designed dazzle patterns, wrote about the principles and practice of the art, and remembered those days fondly when later dedicating one of his books to a dazzle painting colleague,  Steven Spurrier. One of the dazzle designs produced by Jan Gordon was that for HMS Southampton and I discuss below the available information on this design. I also recently bought the book " A Naval Lieutenant 1914-1918," which gives an account of the wartime experiences of the Southampton, with several contemporary comments on camouflage and dazzle. Camouflage of ships in WW1 At the beginning of WW1 in 1914 , Stephen King-Hall (as "Etienne"), serving on HMS Southampton ,  recalled,  " After the big sweep we all went to Loch Ewe to coal, and here I remember noticing the ba
Read more

Jan and Cora Gordon in Albania

Image
Jan and Cora Gordon visited Albania in the summer of 1925 and in 1927 published the book " Two Vagabonds in Albania ." Two phrases from this book resonated when I first read it: " Now and again a wolf howled from far away, and somewhere a kid, lost or smelling some wolf-taint in the air, bleated with persistent terror " pg. 138. and " As we came down into the cultivated fields of the valley we found ourselves walking through clouds of red-winged grasshoppers, which sprang up on all sides with a clattering flight ." pg. 139 The book begins with "Don't stay in Durazzo." From Durazzo they made a clockwise loop to the south, passing through Tirana, Elbasan, Berat, Kelcyre, Permeti and Gjinokastro before returning north to Tirana. The second leg of the journey was an excursion to the north, from Scutari up into the mountains. Map of prominent places visited on the southern loop described in "Two Vagabonds in Albania"
Read more