October 17, 2011

Camo USS Recruit

I'm not sure what's cooler:

That during World War I, John Purroy Mitchel, "The Boy Mayor of New York," built a giant plywood battleship called the USS Recruit in the center of Union Square to drum up volunteers for the Navy,

uss_recruit.jpg

That it was repainted overnight by the Women's Reserve Camouflage Corps in brightly colored dazzle camouflage to get more business,

Or that there's a site--and a book!--called Camoupedia.

Camoupedia: A Compendium of Research on Art, Architecture and Camouflage, by Roy R. Behrens (Bobolink Books, 2009) [camoupedia]

etc. | posted by greg at October 17, 2011 11:23 PM