At first glance that seems to be a very good point. And, as noted, the msg from Hart right before the war tells us that the Cavite Blue was a poor quality paint.
However, the photos you put up are not very useful at all, as you will agree, but the NH # 81592 is very good & illustrative...Sadly, the linked NHHC copy is quite poor. But that image is the one I have a large, much better quality print of [9" x 13.5"] which clearly shows the darker paint up to funneltop level & both MK19 directors in dark paint. More significantly, it is the photo used on the 1940 "Season's Greetings" Xmas card (which I also have a good photo of here.) So it makes all of this painting business an intriguing little riddle.
I have a set of four scanned pix of HOUSTON at Cavite in the process of being repainted into Cavite Blue (or whatever darker shade was employed), and while the scans are of mediocre quality you can make out men on her forefunnel repainting it, with a very good view of the contrasting pigments, etc. Determining it as Cavite is verified by the SOCs on her cats which are already in the AF scheme--very different from their Hawaiian Detachment/Scouting Force scheme--and by the presence of Hart's flag atop the mainmast. He was only on board the cruiser from late November 1940 until late June, 1941 when the flag went ashore into its new digs at Manila. Obviously, one thing that it gives us is a much better idea of the extent to which that darker hue faded.
I also own a small, but beautiful quality image of CA-30 at anchor off Cavite after being repainted. Happily, it has now been published in a brand-new book--unfortunately the graphics are not as sharp or as large as one would hope, but...you can't have everything. It shows the cruiser with her fore-funnel cap painted gray, and I now suspect that must have been an interim thing...because there is no question she had her funnel tops painted black in the war. The more I think about it, it probably was taken at the time of the four other scans of the ship being repainted.
Also, as regards the photo you posted: I know that first generation copies are in the Guthrie Layne photo album. GL was a Texan, and a member of HOUSTON's 1st Division and did not survive the war, BTW. In fact I probably have some far better ones myself that I acquired almost 25 years ago when we made actual copies with real cameras in the university's reprographics section, but for copyright reasons I never post them online, or publish them in my own work. The GL album, which is now at Texas A&M, is very important as a historical photo record of the ship as well as her men. I mention Guthrie for a reason, and not just to drop names. Although I really don't want to expend the time to do it, I have copies (or access to) CA-30 deck logs going back at least to her reassignment to the AF (Nov 1940), and many, many fragments of earlier years--and could examine when she first went out to the Degaussing Range at Manila after her return. I am ~95% certain that the [Guthrie Layne] pics were taken when she was on the Degaussing Range, and that was probably very soon after she returned. Because, as most researchers know, painting the ship is not usually recorded in a Deck Log, but degaussing details often are... That image you put up [not NH # 81592] is the same one in CAPT Walter Winslow's book THE GHOST THAT DIED AT SUNDA STRAIT, and it says 1941, but Walt had no real firm idea about that date, bless his soul. Therefore, do not be misled by that, I mean.
A number of the guys who went out on CA-30 in late 1940 to the AF (& who, like Guthrie Layne, were killed) took a great many pictures on their journey to the Asiatic Station (so you see a lot of photos of Pearl Harbor & Guam) and soon after their arrival at Cavite/Manila. After early 1941 (say, spring) the photos really seemed to drop off. Another factor was the decision to send home navy dependents beginning at the same time (late 1940) and continuing through the spring of 1941. I would say that some of the last DATED photos I have of CA-30 or her planes or men are from March, 1941. Some photo albums seem to have been returned home at that time, in other words. They are remarkably rare, believe me.
One final thought provoked by this discussion: I almost wonder if they painted the ship in this Measure 1(type) scheme in late Nov or Dec 1940, and then, finding it really problematic, repainted her or altered the scheme again?
FWIW
P.S.-- If this site would let me get back on & allow me to post photos from my own collection that I own the rights to, or are in Public Domain, I would be happy to do so. I am a bit frustrated at not being able to post photos but it would not recognize the name I registered under ("Guro Optimo") and I haven't tried to rectify that PIA. I used to have a fotobucket account but understand those have been hijacked now, so not sure how to post pics, really.
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