At the commencement of WW I the British were using a grey officially termed "Battleship Grey". This was very dark, almost charcoal grey and can be easily spotted in early photographs. During the first year however, this was changed to 'mid' grey, partly because of the shortage of dark pigments and the realization that it might get worse as the War went on. The new shade proved better.
Torpedo boats and destroyers were usually black for earlier classes, but dark grey for newer vessels. War built units usually completed in 'Mid Grey.' By 1917 nearly all destroyers and smaller were grey. Only a few torpedo boats continued in black until the war's end. On 'Tiddly ships' the practice of painting the metal areas around the anchor cables in Brunswick green was continued and most turret tops were in dark, flat, Brunswick Green on capital ships.
If you check out the art work section on my web page (www.users.bigpond.com/gallopingjack), you'll find a painting of HMS King George V in 1918. She is depicted in the typical scheme of the time, including the idea of painting some turrets very dark grey and marking them with white calibration marks so that other ships could see the direction the guns were trained on, even if they were unable to see the target themselves. This was deliberately varied from ship to ship in all classes. So the turret painted like this can be different from ship to ship, which helped within the squadron, when identifying units in low visibility.
The placing of aircraft flying off platforms was similarly varied. Corticene was a mid-brown linoleum type decking used on small ships in areas where the crew required a good foot grip as timber would have been too heavy. Corticene was also used on larger ships as an alternative to wood on high areas such as the bridge and bridge wings, where men had to stand for long hours on watch. This was to protect their feet from the cold of metal decks. The Germans used a similar material but it was a pale tan in color. Strips of Cortecine often ran along the decks of some ships particularly next to torpedo tubes and etc.
It was the custom to paint the horizontal metal decks directly around the funnels black on ships that used coal. This was discontinued on oil-burning ships. Wooden decks were 'holy stoned' daily, and took on a very whitish color on British ships. German decks were slightly darker due to different timber, but similarly cleaned each day. Holy stoning consists of virtually 'sandpapering' the wood fresh each day, with special stones. The task was hated by crews and they were delighted when, in smaller ships, such as cruisers, that spent a lot of time at sea, the practice was discontinued for the period of hostilities. It continued on capital ships, partly to give the crew something to do in a very boring daily routine.
After Jutland, British capital ships often carried triangular black/grey metal or canvas sections projecting between the funnels and from masts. This was intended to confuse German range finders as it was expected they used a similar system to the British. (They did not). Canvas was painted grey in home waters, using the same paint as the rest of the ship. Because of the nature of the material it took on a slightly lighter appearance than when used on metal. On the Mediterranean station it was more common for canvas to be painted white in British major ships and for a lot of prewar practices to be continued. The official color was the same mid-grey as the Home Fleet, however in some notable cases this can be seen to be modified into a camouflage using light grey.
The Dardanelles is a good example of this. It was usually confined to up and down lines of pale grey over dark grey, on funnels and upper works. The same applied to Invincible at the Battle of the Falklands. False bow waves were also common in the Mediterranean more than with the Home Fleet. Hull pennant numbers on smaller ships were not constant and were changed from time to time to confuse the enemy. They varied from white, to red or black. I understand that toward the end of the war there were so many ships in service that the practice of changing them was discontinued (It was confusing their own side).
When the British went to camouflage schemes in a big way, it was not intended to hide the vessel, but to confuse the viewer as to its direction of heading, speed etc. For this reason colors such as black and white stripes might be used, sloping in different directions or painted in chevrons....all on the same ship. The variety of colors changed according to the role of the ship. For example light cruisers used on patrol duty in the North Sea were painted in lighter colors because of the notoriously varied visibility and fogs. HMS Forward was painted in a mixture of sea-sick-green, pale pink, grey, black, and white in a 'crazy quilt' style. I have never seen any evidence of destroyer-sized ships painted in this fashion. Some were, however, painted with a dark grey hull and lighter grey upperworks. Black waterlines were usually discontinued, although once again, 'tiddly ships', with the Grand Fleet sometimes did so.
Camouflage does not seem to have been as commonly used in the Mediterranean, partly because the brighter conditions seemed to make it harder to achieve the desired results. It was extensively used in the Atlantic. Due to the huge shipping losses of 1917, orders were issued for ALL merchant ships to be painted in 'crazy quilt' camouflages. This was carried out from very small ships to the largest liners. It was also carried over to seaplane carriers with the Grand Fleet and other auxiliary vessels, convoy escort sloops etc.
Submarines went through various schemes, starting with black. They later tried dark grey, dark green, mid-grey and pale grey.
More WWI Camoflage
BT
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