yellow ochre paint

[michaelpsutton2]

At what point did the Royal Navy begin to paint the sides with yellow ochre as opposed to the "paid" pitch and varnish? I realize there was an overlap.

[Mark P]

Good Morning Michael;

 

By a Navy Board order of 6th May 1777, ships' sides were to be 'paid' with Stockholm Tar mixed with yellow or red ochre; except flagships which could be painted with bright colours at the Commander's request. This was due to the difficulty in obtaining sufficient quantity, and high price, of supplies of Rozin and Turpentine. 

 

The same order directs that the bottoms of ships are to be paid with Pitch & Tar mixed with Brimstone, which makes the common brown stuff, to within nine feet of the load draught of water, and the remainder with Tallow and Lime, with a shallow skirting with Tallow and White Lead [this presumably meant that the 'brown stuff' was normally invisible below the water]

 

The same order directs that masts removed from ships under repair, or those ready to be placed in new-built ships, all of them whilst in storage in the mast house, are to be treated with Tallow. Whereas for ships going to sea, the lower masts are to be painted [unfortunately no colour is stipulated here]

 

These orders probably remained in place until Nelson's time, when his preferred mode of yellow with black stripes and chequered gun-ports became copied through squadrons, and then fleets (although recent analysis of paint remnants on the Victory has led to claims of her being some shade of red/pink I believe)

 

All the best,

 

Mark P

 

[Mark P]

Good Morning Michael;

 

Upon further digging in my files, I have found the following Navy Board order, dated 27th May 1780, which orders that the sides of ships are to be painted with either black or yellow, as the commander desires.

 

All the best,

 

Mark P

 

[wefalck]

My understanding is that this paper summarises the 2020 knowledge on the subject:

 

Vale, B. (2020): Pitch, Paint, Varnish and the Changing Colour Schemes of Royal Navy Warship, 1775-1815: A Summary of Existing Knowlege.- The Mariner’s Mirror, 106(1): 30-42.

 

Analysis of VICTORY's multiple layers of paint shows that during a certain period she must have been pinkish, which is probably due to the fact that ships had to use up their pigment allocations before receiving more pigments and that there was an overstock of red-ochre at some time.

 

As at that time only natural red or yellow ochre was used (no synthetic ochre yet available), there may have been a variation in the hue due to the natural variability of the raw material and were it was mined. In addition, it would have been 'stretched' with chalk, which was cheap in comparison.

 

I don't know where the RN sourced its ochre at the time. Traditionally, the main source was the Roussillon region in Southern France, but I would venture the guess that during the hostilities with France, this was not so easily accessible by the RN. Perhaps it came from Sweden.

 

[michaelpsutton2]

thanks guys