"French Victorian naval liveries" Topic

Anyone know of a good source for these? I have the cover painting and a few comments in Stephen Smith's outstanding "French Warships in the Age of Steam," but curious if there were variations for torpedo craft, overseas stations, etc. Does anyone know of a helpful book or website? Have a fresh crop of WTJ and Tumbling Dice ships to paint.

When I have questions about this I consult the Complete Encyclopedia Of Battleships, by Tony Gibbons.

auction

I can't confirm its' authorirativeness, but it's quite comprehensive, in a broad brush way. Not so useful on non-capital ships.

Is there a Jane's Warships for that period?

Ha! You both referred me to books I have, and to my chagrin, I could have saved us all some time if I had started there.

The 1898 Jane's does not contain information on colors, but the 1905-6 edition states: "Big Ships: hull, black. Upper work, white or canvas color. Black tops to funnels. Destroyers, light grey. Submarines, sea green."

The Gibbons book (which I was given as a birthday present in the 1980s, and almost wore out), suggests that the damp canvas was nearly an aluminum color, possibly with white funnels; in any case, not the ochre of the cover picture I mentioned.

I wonder whether the torpedo vessels were a different color in the 1890s?

Colour schemes did vary with station, at least in British & French navies, possibly the American navy too. German cruisers in the Far East at the time of Manilla were mostly white so they probably had different colour schemes too.

At some point 'overall grey' becomes the 'wartime' scheme in Britain but I can't remember the date for that.

Torpedo vessels were mostly dark colours in their early development but, as they got larger, lighter greys seem to have been preferred for peacetime schemes.

Most colours were still being made from a mix of three main colours; Black, White & Yellow Ochre. Black could have either a brownish tone or a bluish one & ochre would usually be a lot less bright than modern ochre paints and ochre plus black could be anything from a dull yellowish grey to a grotty lichen green when mixed with white (usually lead white).

The 1905/6 edition of Jane's lists the ship color for the RN as grey; I think the "Duncans" were the last British battleships painted in the Victorian livery, and they only wore it for a short period, so IIRC, is changed in the 1903-5 timeframe (Ray Burt's book on British battleships 1889-1906 has, I think, more detail, but I don't have it handy).

There's another TMP thread showing one, here: modelshipgallery.com/gallery/ca/fr/Gloire-600-cm/index.htm

There also was a website which went into a lot of detail on navies of the pre-dread era, with period color postcards. Can't find it any more, though.

MH