Dazzleships: World War I and the Art of Confusion

Dazzleships: World War I and the Art of Confusion is one of those stories that strikes me as almost fantastical, or even wondering at how this is not more discussed and widely known.  During World War I, German submarines were torpedoing ships but not just military ships, they were torpedoing without regard to the passengers, or cargo.  One such ship, The Lusitania, is the most well known in my measure and carried munitions along with passengers, including 120 Americans.  As a result, the British Royal Navy was ready to try anything, including a new idea proposed by Norman Wilkinson to paint ships in patterns that would be confusing under the water, camouflaging what direction the ship was headed in and therefore wasting torpedo missiles that would miss their mark.  Even King George V was fooled in a demonstration of how the patterning works.  

Chris Barton does a spectacular job of bringing the story to the pages, highlighting events that helped to move this improbable, unlikely idea forward.  As the story itself is artistic, Victo Ngai does a masterful job of bringing the colors and patterns to the reader.  As is noted in the Author’s Note, it is difficult to appreciate the Dazzle Ship designs when viewed in black and white photos, as were taken at the time.  The fact that women helped to get the job done only makes it even more powerful.  At a time when women’s roles were minimized and marginalized, the fact that they were involved seems surprising, but much like early female coders and programmers [who were only noticed when someone looked back at photos and questioned who the women were and that person was told, they were models used for the photo opportunity but I digress], their talents were put to use in the war effort.

Chris Barton writes that the US and British Royal Navy disagreed on the effectiveness of the painting of the ships, some felt that “…at the very least, the sailors on those ships just felt better knowing that something had been tried to keep them from getting torpedoed.”  Isn’t that really the point?  When there is a problem, sometimes doing something, anything, even painting ships in wild, colorful patterns, is better than nothing. 

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Title: Dazzleships: World War I and the Art of Confusion

Author: Chris Barton

Illustrator: Victo Ngai

Published 2017 by Millbrook Press

ISBN: 978-1-5124-1014-3

This book was sent by the publisher for review purposes.