Jim, i do beleive that navy (as other services) do keep certain traditions becoming later fetishes, resulted from earlier practical procedures, though i realize that the red paint vs blood resource would not fit in modern context, as vessels and their artillery equipment are so much different (material wise) nowadays.
On the other hand, the habit of the red paint in early days is often mentioned, only that is easier to locate them in the web than in written chronicles, where you don't have the search button to locate the required paragraph among so many book pages. Reason why sources for specific episodes are hardly transcribed from my books with writings from period chronicles.
So ... what i can show you is a part in an exhaustively detailed fictious novel, Sharpe's Trafalgar, which i expect you find interesting ...
The midshipman showed Sharpe the store where the anchor tether was housed, the two leather-draped ammunition stores protected by red-coated marines, the liquor store, the infirmary where the walls were painted red for the blood not to stand out, the pharmacy, and the cabins of the guardsmen, little more spacious than doghouses.
Hereunder three of my books covering all Portuguese navy battles from 1139 to 1579.
.
Last edited by fernando; 20th June 2022 at 11:38 AM.
|