chuck wrote:
What is the typical interior deck color on the Hood?
I asked several Hood veterans this very question many years ago. The basic gist of their replies was that they didn't precisely remember. In fact, I can only recall one chap, Ken "Nobby Clark (we REALLY miss him), being able to provide any detail. He told me that the engineering spaces had grates in some areas and checquered plate in others. No mention of colour (he did tease me be saying "this is what colour the inside was" though...he had part of a rivet that was sheared as a result of a near bomb miss...it was white, albeit yellowed with age). I can completely understand the ambiguity as it was 60 years on. Heck, I can't precisely remember the floor or wall colours of the HQ SAC BB complex and that was my first major military assignment...and that was only 30ish years ago (Awful Offutt...yuck).
As for photos, we do have a handful showing Hood interiors over the years (a few of which are posted below). They don't seem to show great detail with regard to the deck though. The main problem is that we're dealing with old B&W photography (so its the whole pan/ortho thing all over again). The deck looks darker (edited this...I accidentally said "lighter" orginally...no idea why!) than the bulkheads, but of course it would as those were white. Is the colour mid-grey, dark grey, corticene? Hard to say. I know Nobby was right about the checquered plates in the Engine Room (Wright and Logan photos show this). The only other "interior" area for which we the exact ype of flooring, is the rearmost reaches of the focsle deck (near the large rectangular openings in Hood's rear screen...near the Admiral's quarters). Those were planked with teak (see photo below). Other than this, the only info I recall about decking is that tiles were used near the Captain's quarters- I seem to remember seeing tiles through the rusticles in the wreckage near the bell. I really need to get a hold of the raw footage to be sure though.
Of course, all of this aside, I wonder if its safe to assume that the decks would be similar to those on surviving contemporary British-built warships? If so, then perhaps "Belfast" and "Haida" might help: During my visits, I saw dark grey non-slip in some areas, a brown linoleum in other areas (Belfast's Compass Platform for instance), chequered plate, and even alternating white/brownish-red tiles. Of course, one must bear in mind that these were newer vessels and saw service after the war...so its possible things had changed (though perhaps not THAT much). Of course, this brings up another point- Hood's deck coverings may or may not have changed over the years between her commissioning and her loss. For example, we know they applied semtex (not the "kaboom" type, but the textured decking) on the boat deck in the 30s...perhaps there were changes inside as well. Hard to say.
Hopefully Maurice Northcott will see this. He may know if deck covering are mentioned in Hood's cover or her ship's books (I don't recall...and I don't think we've fully transcribed those docs yet...they're a bit of a nightmare).
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