Whale boats and life rafts

[krieglok]

I am working on a few WW2 and Korean War era USN destroyer projects. I picked up a few books about paint schemes and camo patterns but for some reason I cannot determine if the Whale boats(launches) were painted the same color as the rest of the ship. For example, would a Fletcher class DD painted in Measure 21 have the whale boats in the same color as the ship? Also with some of the more complicated patterns like a MS32-3d scheme, would the motor launch be painted a base color or would it be painted the color of the camo pattern that existed on that part of the ship?

Also, what color would the life rafts that were present at various points of the ship be painted?

Thanks for the help.

TJ

[Russ2146]

Only becaue its easier to find close up pictures of cruisers.

Vertical Mount Liferaft.jpg

The rule was that the boat or raft was to match the color of surface against which it was visible. In the pattern schemes, this meant that a raft or boat could be part dark and part light with the dividing line matching the one on its background.

Tracy could probably say this better.

[Russ2146]

June 44-2.jpg

Notedifference between raft and motor whale boat

Camo1.jpg

Camo2.jpg

Camo3.jpg

[Tracy White]

Russ has pretty much nailed it; the only thing I have to add is a photo I sent in to Navsource of USS Gallatin (APA-169) in Dazzle showing how the scheme was extended on to the rafts:

http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/03/100316904.jpg

[krieglok]

Thank you for answering my question. It seems the many books I have do not show these areas in question in detail. Thanks again.

TJ

[Scott56]

The rule was that the boat or raft was to match the color of surface against which it was visible. In the pattern schemes, this meant that a raft or boat could be part dark and part light with the dividing line matching the one on its background.

I know this is an old thread, so am I correct in assuming the rafts on the Iowa in late 43 would be haze grey on sides and the top raft deck blue? About to that point in the process of my Iowa .

[Tracy White]

I'm not going to say it never happened, but I can't remember ever seeing rafts painted as such. Single rafts are too thin to matter and the stacks I've seen were generally painted one color