William MacKay

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William Andrew MacKay was the creator of one of five camouflage schemes approved by the US Naval Consulting Board during World War I for use on civilian vessels. He was Chief of the New York District Emergency Fleet Corporation [1]. MacKay described the philosophy of his design:

A ship silhouetted against the horizon interrupts the horizon light. If therefore, the ship can be made to return to an observer light equivalent to that which she is interrupting, she will merge into the horizon and become invisible. Upon the degree of success with which such return is effected will depend on the relative reduction of her visibility.

His scheme was intended to decrease the visibility of ships at sea. It involved painting patches of violet, red and green paint in strategic spots on the ship in order disrupt the appearance of the structure of the ship. He wrote of his technique:

The structural and characteristic lines and angles of a ship can be either softened or destroyed. According as the ship is viewed through [a] red or green or blue filter the ship presents three different images and through none of them an image so definite as a ship painted with a flat pigment gray.