[Rick]

The deck surface was bare wood which was kept bright with holy stones. Going into combat they were wetted and sanded for traction.
The bulwarks and port lids often were painted red.

Speaking of decorative carvings on warships; there is the end of a Cathead from HMS Somerset 64 that was wrecked on the offshore sandbars in North Truro in 1778 in the Provincetown museum near the pilgrim monument. Every decade or two Somerset's bones get uncovered after a storm. The end of the cathead was found when the wreck was uncovered after a storm some 100 years later.