Dazzle camouflage was applied, like any other coat of paint, by the ship's crew. The largest part of the ship that had to painted was its sides. These were painted by lowering men over the side on 'stages', wooden platforms attached to the deck by ropes. The height of these stages could be adjusted, allowing the full height of the ship to be painted. Typically in the RN, a 'fleet', or strip of the hull, would be painted at one time, before moving on to the next. Rafts were also used to paint the areas close to the waterline that were difficult to reach with the stages. The stages were also used to paint the less-accessible areas of the ships' upperworks. The bottom of the ship's hull was painted with antifouling paints (typically red lead) when the ship was drydocked for refits and repairs, by dock workers using long-handled brushes from beneath the ship.
The origins of the patterns used depended on the period. As I described here, during WWII, camouflage patterns were initially applied according to the captain's whim. From January 1941, official patterns were designed and issued by the Admiralty's Camouflage Section. During WWI, camouflage patterns followed a similar trajectory. Initially, there were frequent unofficial camouflage experiments, some more effective, others less so. The Admiralty made some attempts to guide these. Specialists were selected to observe the ships and make comments, leading the Admiralty to recommend the use of lighter greys, rather than the dark greys and blacks that were common in the earlier schemes. From June 1917, the Dazzle Section was formed under Norman Wilkinson. This was intended to produce effective camouflage patterns to mislead submarine observers, but was mostly focused on protecting merchants. Most of the warships that received dazzle schemes were convoy escorts, or the auxiliary cruisers of the 10th Cruiser Squadron. The only capital ships to receive such schemes were Ramillies, Revenge and Furious, plus the newly built carrier Argus.
How much paint was used depended on the size of the ship to be painted. I only have numbers for Hood, the largest ship in the RN from her commissioning in 1920 to her sinking in 1941. Painting her exterior took four tons of paint, £135 in 1935 pounds. A number of RN paint recipes are available. For example, the standard interwar and early WWII light blue-grey, 507C, used the following recipe:
- Pattern 409 White Lead 28lbs
- Pattern 104 Zinc oxide 50lbs
- Pattern 689 Paste Driers 5lbs
- Oil, linseed, raw 20pts
- Pattern 371 Blue-black paste 7lbs
- Six pints of light grey enamel, Pattern 12, to be added to each cwt of paint
From 1940, the enamel was omitted, to make a more matte finish. The Pattern 371 paste could be substituted for using 3lbs of blue pigment and 1.5lbs of black pigment. The Admiralty prescribed the use of two coats of paint for the ship's sides and upperworks. Steel decks were painted with two coats of red iron oxide primer, followed by two coats of paint, usually a grey.