Artists were enlisted to draw up the camouflage designs. Early in the war, designs were drawn for individual ships, with each ship having its own distinctive pattern (see the drawings at left). As the war progressed, standard patterns were devised and applied to large numbers of ships. An example is the type 24 design. (Note that the designs for opposite sides of the ship can be quite different from one another.) Even the great passenger liners were camouflaged for the duration of the War.

It is unfortunate that there are no color photographs of these WWI ships. People who witnessed convoys of dazzle painted ships reported that the scene was quite dramatic. Imagine sailing across the North Atlantic surrounded by dozens of brightly painted ships, each in different colors and patterns. If you compare the colored drawing with the black and white photograph of the ship "War Clover", you can get an idea of how much we are missing. (Aidan Hall sent me a colorized photo which gives a great idea of how these ships would have looked in real life. Thanks, Aidan.)

At the end of the the First World War, dazzle painting was discontinued, as the admirals had never really liked painting their ships in such an un-military fashion. Also, the introduction of effective air power made dazzle painting problematic, as it increased the ship's visibility to aircraft. The US Navy reintroduced dazzle painting during World War II (after Japanese air power had been largely eliminated) to protect our ships from the renewed threat of enemy submarines. Examples include the US Navy cruiser "Alaska" and the destroyer "Yarnall". However, continuing improvements in radar and sonar eventually eliminated any need for submarine commanders to actually sight their targets visually. This meant that by the end of the war dazzle painting no longer served any useful purpose, and US warships were quickly repainted to a "haze grey" color.