The Story Behind Zebra Stripes Ship Paint Patterns
Navies made various stabs at ship camouflage during World Wars I and II. In WWI, vessels were painted grey to help reduce visibility, but that did not always work in the ever-changing environments and sea conditions. The British eventually pioneered “Dazzle” camouflage paint schemes that used bold stripes and bright colors. The patterns did not hide the ship, but disrupted its outline to make it more difficult to judge its size, speed, and heading. That made it more difficult for an enemy to accurately target it. Dazzle and other camouflage schemes were also employed in WWII, but their use declined as the war progressed. Steady advances in radar and range finding technology steadily reduced the effectiveness of ship camouflage. However, early in the Pacific War, the crew and captain of one Dutch warship, the HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen, came up with an unusual camouflage plan, and successfully pulled it off.
The crew disguised their ship as a tropical island. That allowed the Crinjssen to sail undetected for hundreds of miles through Japanese-controlled waters, until it reached safety in Australia. The Abraham Crijnssen was a Royal Netherlands Navy minesweeper that was built in 1936, and ended up stationed in the Dutch East Indies, today’s Indonesia. That is where WWII in the Pacific found her, when Japan commenced hostilities in 1941. By warship standards, the Crijnssen was a minnow. She was 184 feet long, 25 feet wide, had a draft of 7 feet, and displaced a mere 525 tons. She was crewed by only 45 men, and was armed with a single 76mm gun plus a pair of 20mm cannons.
