I just started working on a theory concerning the Identification letters on the ships boats at Pearl on 12/7/41. What I've seen so far is that for MS-1 ships the identification letters were painted "White" while the letters on the boats of ships wearing MS-11 were painted 5-S "Sea Blue" to match the rest of the boat.
Again, this is just a theory of mine and more research is needed.
USS Detroit was known to be in MS-11 at the time of the attack. Here is a pic of one of her boats showing "DET" painted to match the boat.
This pic shows USS Oklahoma and USS Argonne boats. Both still have white letters.
USS Argonne was no doubt wearing MS-1
Here is another one of Argonne's boats
USS Arizona boats with white letters.
When USS Maryland left Puget Sound in Aug. '41 she was freshly painted in MS-1. Here you can see her boats have white letters.
Boat of USS Maryland still with white letters during the attack.
Boat of USS Vestal, no white letters. Vestal was also wearing MS-11 at the time of the attack.
USS Raleigh was also wearing MS-11 at the time of the attack. Here is one of her boats with no white letters.
Boat of USS Oglala
Boat of USS West Virginia
USS San Francisco was in the Navy Yard right in the middle of a repaint into MS-11 when the attack happened. Here you can see the top half of her superstructure is still in MS-1 while her forward stack is primed for a coat of 5-S paint. Aft stack is already painted in 5-S. The aft portion of the hull showing appears to still be in MS-1 (5-D).
Here is one of USS San Francisco's boats.
I have a few more examples that I'm looking for better copies of that I will post. In the meantime, if anyone has any other examples of the ships boats on that day please feel free to post them here.
I would like to see examples of USS Tennessee, USS California, USS Nevada, USS St Louis, USS Phoenix, USS Honolulu, USS Helena, USS Pennsylvania.