Hull colors above the main wale

[bigcreekdad]

I've seen a few ships with diff colors in the area of the hull.....ochre, light blue. Is there some historical accuracy to this? And if so, what other different colors were used?

[clloyd]

Navy?  Time period? Ship size?

 

Those things really affect the answer to that question.

 

But - just cause they were lying round my harddrive (research for my current build) here's a couple of contemporary models from NMM - British mid - late 18th C. 6th rates  Dark blue (prussian), ochre.  

 

It's my understanding that some of it did come down to what the captain could afford.  Blue was quite expensive as a pigment, ochre not so much.  If memory serves prussian blue was the main blue pigment that had been available at that time.

Later (19th C) the back yellow became a bit more common.

 

Colin

 

[druxey]

What you see on contemporary models is pretty accurate. You might wish to look at marine paintings as well. The earlier 'ochre' was actually oiled wood, not paint. Blue on models varies from smalt (a greenish blue) to dark ultramarine. Prussian blue was discovered in 1704 and came into commercial production by the 1720's. On some models black is substituted for the blue, as in the NMM model of Mermaid.

[JPZ66]

This is certainly an area I would love to know more about. Are there any really well researched books on the subject ? Or is it more a matter of going through various volumes for snippets of info ??

 

-Joe