The sun., 1893-07-27
Our War Ships Remain White.

Secretary HERBERT has issued an order
about painting tho vessels of the navy. o
which the most important part Is the dlrec
tion to paint them white. For the present
therefore. the project lately under con
sideration to change the prevailing color
to something less likely to attract an
enemys attention. has been abandoned.
When the French cruiser Jean Bart was
in port here, at the international review
everybody noticed the contrast between her
dull, lead color and the white OF our YES.
sells and OF the German and Argentine on
the one hand. and the black OF those of Eng.
land. Holland Italy. and Russia on the
| other. Those. also. whose attention was
directed to the matter. could easily see that
the Jean Bart would be less distinct and
discernible object at great distance than
the other cruisers
Nevertheless, probably few OF the on
| lockers at the review desired our vessels
| to change their color to that neutral tint or
| to any other. The white, with it's yellow
trimmings on the upper works had come to
be distinctive mark of our navy, adopted
after the first steel vessels were added. and
in some sense, a token OF the new era in
construction. The order prescribing IT,
came out in senson to have it applied to
the four ships Of our first squadron of evo-
luton. which took the Stars and Stripes to
foreign waters; and the familiar name OF
the white squadron was at once given
to them. There was something in the
clean. natty appearance Of the new craft,
with their white hulls and straw-yeIow
smokestacks. air tunnels, and other fix
lures. which appealed to the popular fancy.
Yet leading purpose in adopting the
white color was not one OF taste, but of
comfort and health. 1t had been found that
In tropical climates. where the cruising
OF the vessels took them, black was
hot and that the change to whito was n
great improvement for those on board. But
after the change had been ordered, other
considerations came up. TO begin with, it
was found that keeping the vessels white
required good deal OF labor and expense.
and that the process OF coaling. in particu-
lar. made havoc with their appearance. Then
came up the question of the best color for
use In time of war. 1t was observed that tho
French were adopting Il dark gray, leaden,
or slate color for some OF their vessels, with
view of making them indistinct ON the
horizon. Capt. w. s. SCHLEY. commanding
the Baltimore. suggested that some such
change might DO advantageous to us, and
different shades have accordingly been sug-
gested for the purpose.
1t was argued that though black lasted
well. and kept the vessels looking neatly.
with the least time and cost expended on
them. and though white made the vessels
several degrees cooler In tropical waters.
Va ba nf ha fnr
was too important for using either. A prac-
tical example Of employing neutral color
was given by Capt. SCHLEY, in saying that |
the Chilian torpedo boats Almirante Lynch |
and Almirante Condell. when painted a dull |
lead color. with slight tinge of green, en- |
tered lquiQue on one occasion and Co. |
quimbo on another at night. and were ,
scarcely visible few hundred feet away.
The color thus chosen was similar to that
adopted for the French coastguard ships. !