Guest wrote:
Marco,
Good question!
You see the paravane secured to brackets on the bridge superstructure "screen" in your picture. This may have been the normal position: out of the way of gun blast. They are likely to have been moved further forward and down onto the forecastle when required for use but I cannot be sure. You surmise that some of the fittings on the ship's upper deck may have been painted white. I agree (educated). This was a "smartness"/"pride in ship" measure (the Royal Navy word was "tiddly:" it has nothing to do with being drunk!). However, be careful, painting fittings white was largely confined to such things as fairleads, bollards/bitts, capstans/cable holders and reel covers, nothing else. Fixed structure/superstructure was left grey and that is what the barbette structure of "A" mounting is in the picture. White fittings and all bright-work was painted grey on mobilising for war unless it was left white as a counter-shading measure.
Thank you for the input, Guest, quite useful! I will put the paravene attached to the wall (screen as you name it, I am not an expert in naval terminology), I have some pictures from other RN ships showing that was the standard way of storing these. Regarding the lighter color, I suppose it would have been standard procedure to paint light gray every highly visible item on deck, and white would be highly visible. Good for parade, bad during war, absolutely.
Marco