British naval & garrison carriage colours

[broadarrow]

Hi Folks, I was just wondering if any of the members here can enlighten me as to why British naval & garrison carriages are painted in different colours in some instances such as yellow, red or grey, is it bright colours such as red or yellow for the low light conditions below deck or was it completely random or does a member here have a key as to the colour allocations, Regards, Peter B.

[A.Roads]

Hi Peter, a good question, although to some extent it also depends upon which period you are referring to.
 - Napoleonic field, siege & garrison artillery - there is little factual evidence but it is generally thought that wood was dark grey & metal was black. Contemporary drawings also show blues & buff - buff is thought to indicate natural unpainted wood.
 - Victorian field, siege & garrison artillery - this era is blessed with better documentation. Zinc oxide paint found favour over lead oxide paint but did not wholly supersede its use, in overly simple terms the oxide was mixed with linseed oil in one form or another & driers & sometimes pigment were added, formulas can be found in various references as can the times allowed to clean & paint each nature of ordnance & its carriage. Some specific colour applications are known, one reference states - White paint for lettering etc - Lead colour for carriages for home service - Stone colour for powder cases etc - Red for trench carts, pontoons, inside boat magazine, leather etc - Black for iron work.
Naval - 1750s - Carriages were mainly red. Mortar beds (on Bomb vessels) land service grey.
Naval - Napoleonic - Almost always invariably the colour was red ochre simply because that was the cheapest paint. Apart from red some other examples known of such as white in officers cabins, green for Lord High Admiral, & scarlet & gold for certain yachts.
Naval - Victorian - I have fewer references pertaining to this subject area & can not state with any certainty what the practice was.
Adrian

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Hi Adrian, thanks for shedding a little light on the subject we have actually just built four scale naval/garrison carriages for our barrels and did not want to paint them all the one colour but also wanted to do something that is "correct" to the type and nationality of their origin. I have photographed the recovered cannon from Captain Cooks H.M. Endeavour at the Maritime museum in Sydney Australia and they are on recreated carriages and are finished in bright red which is what I think my carriage will be finished with as our barrels are scaled versions of those guns. Do you have any photos of the colours you are talking about, I know that the reproduced colours in photographs aren't exact but could be a guide to others in my dilemma. Thanks for your help with this so far, Regards, Peter B.

P.S. I have seen your posts of the work you are involved in, they are some interesting and large projects and are most informative on the subject we all enjoy, Thanks

[A.Roads]

Hi Peter, thank you for the kind remarks. Unfortunately I don't have images of anything that I know to be a well researched representative of original paint & colour etc. I have the usual run of photos taken in museums but rarely (never?) does the authenticity of the paint finish rate a mention so I can only suggest having a look at sites such as Fort Nelson, HMS Victory etc & be guided by their representations - although I note that Victory have tan coloured carriages - am not sure where that came from. Reproduced or restored naval carriages I have seen are usually either left as natural timber or sometimes a bright glossy enamel red - which I don't doubt is brighter than was ever achieved with a red lead oxide paint.
What scale are your Cook's guns? I have seen them in at least 1/4, 1/2 & I think even 3/4 scale. I have a nice example that a friend did in 1/4 scale. Adrian

[Double D]

Adrian/Peter.

Several years ago someone--was it Bill Curtis--published a book of British artillery plans.  Are you familiar with this publication and might it have information on colors...oops excuse me, British...colours?

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Hi Adrian, here is a picture of two of our barrels, same pattern obviously, one cast in naval gun bronze the other in iron both of them have full liners cast into them, they are .75cal and are 18inches long which is roughly quarter scale, Regards, Peter B.

 

 

[Ex 49'er]

WOW!!!!!!!   Those are great looking tubes. Thankyou for posting pics of them.

[A.Roads]

Hi Peter,
Nice barrels, mine is the same as your iron one except it was bored out to .75 cal rather than sleeved.

"Several years ago someone--was it Bill Curtis--published a book of British artillery plans.  Are you familiar with this publication and might it have information on colors...oops excuse me, British...colours"

I believe that your are referring to the excellent set Bill reproduced "Diagrams of Guns - A set of scaled engineering drawings of British artillery pieces in service in 1853" - however this set only depicts the barrels, not carriages unfortunately.
Adrian