Ships models to test “Dazzle” camouflage

These models were used to test “Dazzle” , a camouflage scheme for ships invented by artist Norman Wilkinson. The idea was, wrote Wilkinson in 1917, “to paint a ship with large patches of strong color, which will so distort the form of the vessel that the chances of successful aim by attacking submarines will be greatly decreased”. By the end of the war over 4,000 British ships were painted in Dazzles schemes. (The Imperial War Museum, London).