FW_Allen wrote:
Whilst going through Hood’s books (ADM 136/13), I came across numerous sheets concerning the condition of her bottom when drydocked. There are many interesting descriptions of grass along the sides, coralline, missing coatings etc. There are also details regarding what coating was applied to the bottom and the boot stripe. Looks to me like they put an undercoat with an overcoat… But I’m no paint expert so I could be wrong.
What do the paint experts make of this? See anything unexpected here or is it all pretty standard for the time period? What’s this “slate” colour they refer to? AI Grey? Why no mention of the standard red?
Frank,
This is not something I have looked at before as my interest has been the paints from the waterline upwards. However I have had a quick look at what I have from the 1937-1941 timeframe.
At that time RN ships’ bottoms were painted first with anti-corrosion or “protective” coats (abbreviated to “Pro” or “Prot” in those Hood documents I think). Over these was then applied an outer anti-fouling coat. So the apparent colour of an RN ships’ bottom below the boot topping would have depended on the colour of the anti-fouling paint.
At that time the Admiralty used proprietary suppliers for its ships’ bottoms compositions. Peacock and Buchan’s were one of these. Their Admiralty quality anti-corrosion paint No. 1 came in black and their No. 2 in slate. Their Admiralty quality anti-fouling paint came in either black or grey. "AI" was I think a use of the Roman numeral instead of "A1" which was the brand name for P&B paint. This is how it was listed in the Admiralty Rate Book:
Attachment:
Peacock and Buchan's.JPG [ 87.3 KiB | Viewed 3536 times ]
This raises the question as to what extent red anti-fouling paint actually was “standard” at that time. There were then 17 authorised suppliers of Admiralty quality ships’ bottoms compositions. The colours of their anti-fouling coats were as follows: six supplied in grey only; seven supplied in either grey or black; one supplied in grey or green; one supplied in red or black; and two supplied in red, grey or black.
This may help explain what we see on a number of (often builders’) contemporary models in British museum collections for example:
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collectio ... 67452.htmlhttps://collections.rmg.co.uk/collectio ... 66003.html (read the description)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collectio ... 65979.htmlhttps://stefsap.files.wordpress.com/201 ... aldo-8.jpgSo to find out the colour of a particular ship’s bottom I guess you would have to go to the ship’s book and hunt out the D.495 forms to see what was actually used - but of course few of these ships’ books survive.
Doubtless due to wartime pressures, in the autumn of 1940 the use of merchantile quality anti-fouling paint from two suppliers was authorised on lesser warships (sloops, corvettes, trawlers, AMCs, RFAs, minesweepers, tugs etc). There were seven Admiralty-authorised suppliers of these merchantile quality anti-fouling paints, all seven suppling in red but two of them in brown also. So from late 1940 onwards red may have become very much more common - but Hood was not a lesser warship. (There was also some indication that merchantile quality anti-fouling paint might in time be rolled out more widely if its use proved satisfactory.)
Best wishes,
Richard