Color Schemes for the USS Oregon

Below are images of the historical color schemes of the USS Indiana class battleships. A hearty well done and thank you to Mr. Roman Detyna for allowing me to use these images on the USS Oregon website. He has created some absolutely outstanding work in digitizing historical ship. Plus he's got some great water color paintings. Pay a visit to his site at:

Image by Mr. Roman Detyna, used with permission

Above: The USS Oregon in the Buff scheme. Ship's hull is white while superstructure and military mast is buff in color. Gun barrels are black. This scheme was used before the Spanish-American War of 1898 during times of peace.

Image by Mr. Roman Detyna, used with permission

Above: The USS Oregon in the White scheme. Ship's hull is white as is the superstructure. The military mast is a medium gray and the smoke stacks are a tan/off-buff color. Again, the gun barrels are black. This scheme was used after the Spanish-American War of 1898 during peacetime.

Image by Mr. Roman Detyna, used with permission

Above: The USS Indiana in the Gray scheme. The entire ship is painted in the Gray color scheme during non peacetime situations. This would eventually become the official scheme of the United States Navy during peacetime or wartime. Note that Mr. Detyna has shown the Indiana after the Smoke stack extension modification

 

Notes: Ships hull below the waterline is red in color. Eventually a small black stripe on the waterline would be painted on to separate the red hull from the main hull color. Usually, smoke stacks tips would have black at the top to cover the residual stack gasses.

The White color of U.S. warships during times of peace denoted the ship's (and country) status when entering a foreign port. Thus a white painted warship meant the port visit was peaceful. During times of heightened tension between the United States and another country, U.S. warships would be painted a more subdued gray color to reflect a more prepared state and additionally provided a form of camouflage while a sea. When the tensions lessened and a state of peace returned, the warships would go back to the white scheme. Eventually, sometime shortly before or during World War I, all U.S. warships would go to the gray scheme and remain this way, even today to reflect the preparedness of U.S. warship. On a lighter note, it also saved time, materials, and effort on repainting ships. 

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