Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1918 — MAKES WARSHIP LOOK LIKE TUB [ARTICLE]

MAKES WARSHIP LOOK LIKE TUB

Painters Disguise Craft to Deceive Foe Lurking in Enemy Waters. CAMOUFLAGE IN THE NAVY < 'Even Dreddnaughts Made to Appear a* Something but the Monster* They Are—Navy Men Like Gray the Best. By J. M. DAIGER, i Correspondent Chicago News. Norfolk, Va.—“ And what is that old tub lying over there, captain?” “That happens to be a brand new torpedo boat destroyer that has just arrived to be manned and put Into imUnediate service.” ' The thing that made me call the new destroyer an old tub is the thing that makes the commander of a German iU-boat look through his periscope and (remark: “A fine morning, but not a ship in sight.” If the next Instant finds the submarine banked straight down into Davy Jones’ locker, it is because the commander failed to launch

a torpedo at the “fine morning” and ‘because the “fine morning” got in its ■shot first. It is the naval camouflage—the painting of ships to look fit a short distance like what they are not and at a long distance like nothing at all. Even a Superdreadnaught. Impossible as it might seem to make teuperdreadnaughts appear anything but the monsters they are, there are nevertheless processes of camouflage (for them. Jt is obvious that details as to what designs are being used on various types of ships are not for publication, especially in view of the fact that experimental schemes for having ships sail In false colors—not under them —are constantly being tried out. I saw one of the largest of the naval colliers, which has several times crossed the Atlantic since America’s entry into the war, that had a very simple scheme of camouflage in which iPnly grays were used. Simple in conception and execution, apparently, but It had anamazing effect on the appearance of the ship a short distance pt sea, and from what happened at (that short distance I have no doubt the icollier was lost to the eye when it got much farther away. The older naval officers incline to the opinion that the regulation navy •gray by itself is better than any camouflage that the artists have invented, and they are frankly skeptical about (these riots of color and freak designs that the scientific application of one of the fine arts is smearing over their ,'ships- ? The camouflage used by a great many merchantmen is familiar to everyone who has observed the shipping An the harbors along the Atlantic coast. These vessels close up look like (scrambled rainbows or like the palette of an artist in his cups. The weather has much to do with the power of these gay colors to create optical illusions. It is almost impossible for people (living comfortably in large cities to (imagine the hardships which the men (who watch our coasts are suffering at (this time of year. Twenty degrees bellow zero In the Rocky mountains is (not so cold as the weather around the (capes. The government has supplied |the hundreds of men on the patrol (boats, the submarine chasers and the imine sweepers with their allotment of winter clothing, but they need knitted articles. Sometimes Must Let It Sink. Should disaster overtake a. ship the irules in the district office at Norfolk say the first consideration must’ be The war needs of the country. One vessel must not risk danger to save another. (The conservation of ships and of men, not the chivalry and the courage and ’the heroism of the sea. must guide the decision of those who would save a shipwrecked crew. If the number of lives involved is very great—great (enough tb justify the risk of a smaller number of lives-- then the rescue may be attempted. But if there is doubt that a rescuing party will itself return

from a perllous journey tb'save a srnfiir number,of lives, then the war time rule is firm. Early every morning the ships go out in pairs, sister ships, with their huge “broom” stretched across from one vessel to the other, to make clear the path for the merchantmen and warships that must pass, through the capes and out to sea and for those that come in during the day. Do they find any German mines? I don’t _know. But if there are German ffiines to be found near our coasts, the work of the mine sweepers is a risky business Indeed. Even if there are no German mines, I suppose it is quite possible for an American mine—there are thousands of them planted In the district — to break loose from the great mine field In Hampton Roads, or elsewhere, and drift in the way of unsuspecting ship. And there is always the possibility of the enemy within doing what unceasing vigilance in the naval district is trying to prevent him from doing. “