Norfolk 250N is your best bet but it's probably wrong. In fact, almost everything we knew about 1941 carrier decks is wrong, but we don't 100% know what's right yet and likely won't for every carrier.
We've known for a bit that Ranger was conducting camouflage flight deck stain in the Atlantic during 1941, but in the last few years we've learned that the Pacific Fleet was also performing camouflage experiments, at least on Enterprise. I came across
this September 3, 1941 memo from Admiral Halsey, serving as "Commander Aircraft, Battle Force" to the Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics indicating that she was likely painted in an experimental deck paint by late August of 1941. Just a little over a month later
he updates them. I haven't found the source letters that are referenced to know if they was only sent to Halsey or were also sent to other carriers.
The earliest reference I have for "250N" is actually
December of 1942: directives issued in
December of 1941 actually reference a formula "L-81-3M." If you compare the two side-by-side, they're largely the same ingredients, but in much different quantities. L-81-3M has about 80 lbs of "Ultramarine Blue" to 7 lbs. for color versus 6.4 to 8, respectively. Are the two Ultramarine Blues the same, or was 250N much more of a hint of blue, and what are the S&S paint chips we've been using based of of?
We know from
this article that Lexington had painted over her pre-war
maroon stain over painted by some sort of blue by October of 1941. We know that that for L-81-3M, "The original production of deck stain was shaded to match standard samples of No. 20-B paint and the marking paint to match No. 5-0 paint."
We don't know for sure what the Pacific fleet was doing.
_________________
Tracy White -
Researcher@Large"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-
Barbara Tuchman