painting bulwarks red, why?

[Bill Hudson]

I hav noticed that many projects posted here have the bulwarks and gunports painted red. What is that all about?

[Craigie65]

I presume you mean on warships? Depends on the ship and nationality, but I believe it was to hide the blood. Not sure how effective that was as they did not paint the decks red!

Edited May 28, 2023 by Craigie65

[allanyed]

The following is more likely the reason.   Deck furniture, bulwarks, etc, were red ochre. This was discussed in an earlier post here at MSW in 2021 and it was mentioned that this was for protection from the weather and ochre (earth) colors were inexpensive.  In addition, after long sea voyages and during repairs it was also refreshed. The idea that it would hide blood was coincidental, not the reason it was most often red.  There are a number of contemporary models where much of the inboard works were painted black.  I have no idea if this was original or done at some later time.  The Navy Board stated 18 July 1715 that painting (presumably outboard and inboard) was "not to refresh oftener than once a year or two and the inboard works that are from the weather."  There is no mention of a particular color or hiding blood.  The actual usefulness in protecting the wood from rot and the cost would probably be a bigger concern to the navy than the mental state of the sailors in the age of sail.    If you are next to a man that has had some part of his body ripped off, I doubt hiding the blood on a bulwark would make it any easier to avoid fear, panic  or the onset PTSD. 

Allan

Edited May 28, 2023 by allanyed

[wefalck]

As Allan said, price of the pigment was probably the determining reason. Red ochre was readily available in many parts of Europe and has excellent covering capabilities and weathering resistance (it is the end-product from weathering other rocks, particularly iron-bearing limestones, after all).

 

From the second quarter of the 19th century on, fashion seems to have changed, when lead-white began to produced in larger quantities, bulwarks were painted white or sometime in pale green, yellow, blue or even in pink, when some other pigment was added to the lead-white.

[glbarlow]

Bulwarks on American ships at the time were mostly painted green. 

[Bill Hudson]

So the bulwarks for my mini 1829 revenue cutter should be green?

[popeye2sea]

I think red was the cheapest color available. Also the reason most barns in New England are painted red.

 

Regards,

Henry

[allanyed]

8 hours ago, glbarlow said:

Bulwarks on American ships at the time were mostly painted green. 

Great information Glenn, thanks.   I found with some digging that the Isaac Hull model of the USS Constitution from 1812 has dark green bulwarks but nothing more on others.  Is your source for this based on contemporary information?  

Thanks again, much appreciated👍

Allan

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by allanyed

[Roger Pellett]

Barn Red ( iron oxide) paint still is cheap and is widely used as an industrial primer.  

[glbarlow]

1 hour ago, allanyed said:

Is your source for this based on contemporary information?

No source, just an observation. The Constitution has green today. 

Edited May 29, 2023 by glbarlow

[allanyed]

 

Thanks again Glenn,

As USS Constitution has been modeled by hundreds or likely thousands, the color is good to know.  I still wonder if this is a one-off.  As you mentioned  most US ships had green bulwarks it would be really interesting to see others.  It is in contrast to a superstition regarding paint colors on vessels.  In addition to bananas on board being bad luck, another of many superstitions was sailors considered green on vessels unlucky.  Who knows if anyone really followed these old superstitions, but I know of one fishing yacht captain that threw a bunch of bananas overboard when he found out someone brought them aboard for a snack.  

Allan

Edited May 29, 2023 by allanyed

[wefalck]

Green being an unlucky colour on ships must be an 'americanism'   Over here in Europe, green was a common colour on ships throughout the 19th century. At a time, when the wales were picked out in colour, one band was usually either green or blue. Some ships also had green hulls and it had been the 'corporate identy' for at leas one sailing ship and one steamship line in Germany. Below is a painting from 1833 by the foremost Danish marine painter C.W. Eckersberg of the corvette NAJADEN that shows green bulwarks, gun carriages, skylights, etc.:

Source: Wikimedia.

 

Who sailed those cooling steamers that transported bananas from South and Central America to all over the world ?

 

Edited May 29, 2023 by wefalck

[Beef Wellington]

The following illustration comes from Old Ship Figure-heads and Sterns by L. G. Carr Laughton (1925).  Think this summarizes the trends in ship colours nicely, and is not identified as nation specific.  Unfortunately, no specific dates are provided, but that seems reasonable as changes would likely not be introduced instantaneously, and there were very likely exceptions.  The one takeaway is that red/yellow ochre went through various interations, white was gradually introduced as a decorative element (pin striping on the edge of bands) and finally became prevalent along with green, likely becuase of paint technology/cost evolution.

 

Edited May 29, 2023 by Beef Wellington

[allanyed]

2 hours ago, wefalck said:

Below is a painting from 1833 by the foremost Danish marine painter C.W. Eckersberg of the corvette NAJADEN

Great picture Eberhard.  I suspect you are right about the superstition being an American thing.

 

1 hour ago, Beef Wellington said:

The following illustration comes from Old Ship Figure-heads and Sterns by L. G. Carr Laughton (1925).

Thanks for posting this picture Jason.  

 

Allan

[glbarlow]

Not sure the most respected ship in the US having having green bulwarks would support it be an Americanism what ever that is. All I know is my Winchelsea has red, and not an “accurate” red either, just one I like.  I’m good with that. 

[Mercator]

Maybe the reason why it was bad luck to have bananas on a ship come from the banana clusters sometimes harbor snakes or some unwelcome bugs. The refrigerated hold on modern banana boats are on scary place.

[allanyed]

23 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

just one I like.  I’m good with that. 

Could not have said it better!  

[Dr PR]

Green certainly wasn't uncommon on US Navy ships in the 20th century, and I never heard any superstitions about it being unlucky. Our stateroom bulkheads and some passageway bulkheads were green and the linoleum tile on the decks was green.

 

However, I always thought of it a "puke green." Possibly because I was seasick for much of my 3 1/2 years in the Navy. Some of the guys said I turned an interesting shade of green.

 

So maybe it was like Pavlov's dogs. I go aboard ships, they are green inside, and I puke. A conditioned behavior? In that respect perhaps it was unlucky.

[bruce d]

As this thread has become an interesting sounding board for observations, here's something I found about colours. 

Almost all early powerboat racers were green below the waterline. I am referring to around 1900 to the 1930s. It was a convention, not a rule, and other colours were available but shunned. Several manufacturers made 'hull green' paints, especially in the USA. 

So, at least in the early 20th century, superstition did not keep green off of these boats. Perhaps quite the opposite. 

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by bruce d

[wefalck]

The market for anti-fouling paints was revolutionised by a certain Bremerhaven captain W. Rahtjen, who took out a patent in around 1860 for a paint that was initially composed of shellac, red iron-oxide and arsenic and/or mercury oxide. Later the shellac was replaced by cheaper (and sometimes more effective) resins. According to a German textbook on iron-shipbuilding of 1870, Rahtjen's Patent Paint was available by then also in green, blue, brown, and white. I gather the popularity of red and green as ship-bottom paint stems from the fact that they kind of simulate the familiar appearance of coppering. 

 

Another conclusion from the above observation is that by that time the respective pigments were cheap enough to be used even on ships' bottoms.

Edited May 30, 2023 by wefalck

[Roger Pellett]

From Nautical Research Journal, Volume 19- 1972

 

An extract from US Navy-  “Fitting out of Naval Vessels 1842”.   

 

“ Black and White are the only colors for the outside of vessels.  White, straw or green inboard.”

 

 

[uss frolick]

The reason New England barns are painted red, is so the cows can find their way home in a blizzard. That told to me as a child from an ancient native Vermonter, of somewhat questionable reliability.

 

I recall reading a microfilmed 1812 letter from a captain of the US Frigate Chesapeake, (Evans? Lawrence?) asking if the inside bulwarks could remain in the "slate grey" primer color, following a great repair, as he had apparently preferred it. No answer to him was found.

[wefalck]

I gather the red barns etc. are a Scandinavian legacy, many buildings there were painted in red iron-oxide, apparently mixed with cattle-blood as a binder, dito. in some regions of England, I think. Further East, the wooden timber structures in some regions of western-central Europe were painted with the same mixture. 

[Roger Pellett]

One of my father’s interests/ hobbies was raising Aberdeen Angus cattle.  The hub of our farm was a large bank barn;  hay loft on top cattle down below.  When we bought the place the barn was painted red.  We later had it painted white.  The cattle didn’t appear to know the difference!  😀

 

Roger

[allanyed]

From what I have been able to research cattle are not totally color blind but they see greens and reds more as black and shades of gray.

Allan

[wefalck]

By chance, I am currently reading Fox, J. (2021): The World According to Colour - A Cultural History.- Penguin, and have just finished the chapter on RED. I am still debating with my self, whether the book will provide much added value or whether it is just a string of sort of anecdotes. Anyway, a general observation is that in many non-European languages red = colour = beautiful and often the languages use the same word, where we are more discerning. Actually, in Russian also 'red' (красный) and 'beautiful' (красивый) seem to share the same root, so no wonder that the 'Reds' chose 'red' as their colour. So perhaps in a time when there were fewer choices of pigments/colours people just chose red because it was readily available in many parts of the world and because it was coloured it then was beautiful.

 

So the inside of the bulwarks were 'beautified', while the hull on the outside remained largely utilitarian.  

[Roger Pellett]

In Chinese culture, the color red is associated with good luck.  Brides often wear red.  

[Jaager]

I wonder if the answer is relatively straight forward?

Except for the deck, it would pay to protect the wood surfaces exposed to the elements and a budget priced pigment have appeal.

On the exposed decks, there might have been a problem with glare if the pigment was white?

If it was white, then blood spatter, or dirt, or soot, or day to day abuse would require a new coat more often than red?

Iron oxide is already oxidized, so it will not breakdown.  Red is a team color and the pigment is probably as economical as it got.

Red is heat.  If we see a color, that means that it is being reflected, instead of being adsorbed.  Perhaps iron oxide is also good at reflecting IR?  If so, then the wood would not get as hot as a color that soaks up IR?

 

On the lower decks, what with their being caves,  I would think that some form of whitewash would be universal.  It reflects all wave lengths of light.  Except for mirror-like surfaces, white would be as efficient as practical allowing the crew to see.

 

It is probably me, but it appears to me that the intensity of the red used on many models is greater than scale effect would have it be?

Would the remedy be to add grey  or  make it more translucent - dilute it a bit?

 

 

[uss frolick]

If you think about it, the whole blood thing makes little sense. From the direction that any shot would come, any gory splatterings would be flung back and away from the bulwarks. It would make more sense to paint the deck red, and issue the crews with red clothes, if that was a major concern. In this same way, the crew hammocks, hung above the bulwarks in battle was alleged to have been splinter protection. But given the crew's position, and the direction any fire would come from, that is not possible. It did somewhat hide, and to a small degree protect, the heads of the crew from enemy small arms men.