EVADING THE U-BOAT.

EXPERIMENTS IN CAMOUFLAGE.

The following communication has been issued officially: It has been stated at various times in the public press that the Admiralty have not realised the value of camouflage as a means of assisting to defeat the attacks of enemy submarines on mercantile shipping, and that such camouflage as has been tried is not of British origin. It can be stated that the Admiralty are fully alive to its value, and several months ago a system of camouflage was originated. The principles governing it cannot be divulged at present, but it may be said that it has not invisibility for its basis. The theory of rendering ships invisible at sea by painting them various colours is no longer tenable; endless endeavours have been made in this direction, and numerous schemes given fair trial by the Admiralty under actual conditions at sea. The results of these trials have invariably been disappointing, and it has been finally established that unless a vessel and her smoke can be rendered absolutely invisible, no useful purpose is served. The application of Thayer’s law is most commonly put forward as a means of obtaining invisibility. This, broadly speaking, is an adaptation of Nature’s means for eliminating shadows and so reducing the visibility of birds and animals at close quarters either for purposes of attack tor defence, and it is dated that this can be applied to ships, by painting the ceilings of promenade decks or other projecting structures white, in order to eliminate all shadows. Actual experiences at sea have proved that this is a fallacy, and that the paint itself being dependent on the light of the sky will not overcome shadows. The scheme now in use has been extensively taken up, not only by the British, but also by the Allied Governments, and no stone is being left unturned to utilise this important asset, which is only one of the many devices which are used to combat the enemy’s submarine activity.