Saturday, January 25, 2014

Zébrage | Striped Camouflage

Above WW1 New Zealand passenger cargo ship, SS Tofua, docked at Nelson (c1919) in striped disruptive camouflage, known in French as zébrage.*

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Norman Wilkinson in "Dazzle Painting of Ships" in The Nautical Gazette (September 13, 1919), p. 177—

Sometime before the end of the war we had arrived at the striped type of design which was the most successful type. These striped designs were commented on by a great number of seamen as being by far the best for upsetting the calculation of a ship's course.

* Image Source Digital restoration of photograph by F.N. Jones of the SS Tofua at Nelson NZ (c1919). Original in collection of State Library of Victoria AU.

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