Liberty Ship question

[drasticplastic]

Anyone know if any Liberty Ships on North Atlantic convoys were painted in dazzle patterns during '41 - '43? Or did dazzle only come in '43 - '44?

[reigels]

No dazzle's at all on the Atlantic for Liberty freighters (or tankers).

The only dazzle painted liberties I've seen were the Navy conversions for support and repair ships, predominantly found in the Pacific.

Ocean Gray is often cited as the as-build color for some Liberty ship yards, but there is a huge amount of variation (and weathering) in actual use.

[Tracy White]

The majority of Liberty ships were Maritime Commission, which weren't even allowed to use Navy paints until the formulas essentially leaked in 1943 or so and were commercially available.

[drasticplastic]

I was afraid of that! Thanks. Now I'll either have to paint over a really neat dazzle job I've done, or buy a new Liberty Ship!

[Tracy White]

Well, you might look as there were numerous Liberties in USN Service as the Crater Class, designated EC2-S-C1 and USNDazzle (We miss you Lee!) lists several with the design sheet. It would be up to you to look through their DANFS Entries to see if one maybe was assigned to the Atlantic or did a convoy in dazzle as part of a shake down.

[raggs]

Drasticplastic, you can also search here;

http://www.shipscribe.com/usnaux/AK/AK70.html

This gives a rundown on the Crater class and a couple of dazzle pics.
I'm sure there are some Atlantic conversions in 44 that were dazzled before coming over to the west coast.

Paul