Hylie, The hulls were painted with flax oil.
Um OK... I'll bite. The "pirate store" wouldn't have Flax oil (linseed oil) because the flax industry did not come to the New World until the mid/late 1700s. So the only place to get linseed oil would be European ports - same place as I said you would need to go to get repainted after a tour in the tropics.
Were SOME ships painted with linseed oil?
YES I'm certain that SOME were.
Were - ALL - ships painted with linseed oil? ----------- Absolutely not.--------------
The flax growing industry in Europe had been booming since the 1200s, but its primary end product was linen. Linseed oil would not have been consistently available all year round for ship yards.
Oils were a primary component of MOST historic marine paint. Certainly linseed oil was used - ALONG WITH fish oil, animal fats, (and whale oil in the mid 1600s onward). I'm sure many marine paints had linseed oil in them as part of the HOT compound I talked about in my earlier post
http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/new-look-for-yoho-s-convoy-ship.15004/
I'll say it again... historic marine PAINTS/preservation compounds were composed of many components: pitch, tar, oils, fats, blood, greases, broken glass and various additives including ash, clay, rosin, minerals - such as lime or copper sulphate AND the elements necessary to create a particular color if desired.
It was all dependent on WHERE the ship was and WHEN. To say that flax/linseed oil was used exclusively to paint ships is a subjective, bold sweeping generalization - just as assuming that color was not used that much is also - It's just plain silly. Show me the proof. The historic paintings, models, lading records, and supply/requisition & balance sheets for shipyards are all in my favor.
I may have to dig out my graduate paper on 17th century industries that supported war (written in 1996), and scan it in just for the bibliography.
I'm actually glad of this debate, because it forced me to look in many books. This subject is really not covered very well even in the "Arming and Fitting..." books. "Pepys's NAVY" covers it a little. Bjorn Landstrom's landmark work "The Ship" covers it a little. Another book I have on "SHIPS' Figureheads" by Norton, talks about the use of multiple colorful paints used (quite a number of very old examples survive).
In the book "The Construction and Fitting of the English Man of War, 1650-1850, there is an appendix (3) "Navy Board Order on painting ships dated 18 July 1715" that is very specific about colors (especially yellow and black) specifying that solid colors will be used except on the head and stern galleries. It also warns captains not to deviate on the gallery colors and decoration colors specified by Admiralty contract - even if captains were willing to have special paintwork commissioned at their own "charge"/expense. I find this very interesting. It tells me that this must have been a practice of captains prior to 1715.
Another excellent book I have "Six Galleons for the King of Spain", by Carla Rahn Phillips (ISBN 0-8018-4513-0) is EXHAUSTIVELY researched using thousands of original documents. (I used this one for my paper) She talks about the shipwrights inspecting the work of the caulkers before tarring, because you could not see bad work after tarring. Also among what was called common "naval stores" aboard each galleon was "tar, resin and oils." Preferred among the oils was dogfish, shark, and sardines. Tuna oil was forbidden because it would make the paint and tar peel off especially in cold temperatures.....interesting. Their paint must have really smelled. Pew. Last she discusses that the delivery of the galleons was delayed by almost a year because of protests by the contractors. Specifically in the grievances and excuses the Noble (Arana) in charge of completing the ships, gave to King Phillip was that.....
"......outfitting had doubled its cost...from PROVIDING DECORATIVE PAINTING AND GILDING for the ships."
Ever see My Cousin Vinny?
LAST: Is from a book published in 1925, called "Old Ship Figure-Heads and Sterns", by L.G. Carr Laughton (ISBN 0-486-41533-3). This is the most exhaustively researched book I've ever come across on this subject with thousands of illustrations. He covers basically every European nation in depth by time period showing very detailed evolutions. It isn't just about figureheads and sterns either. He talks about ALL decorations to include railings, strakes, gunports, etc... In this book he devotes all of chapter X to "Painting and Guilding" pp257-279. He goes from the Middle Ages all the way to 1815. Several little interesting quotes .... 2000 English Pounds spent specifically for "Painting" the HMS Prince when only 756 English Pounds was spent on "carving and gilding". 6,691 English Pounds was spent on the Sovereign of the Seas painting. All I can figure was that the cost of the paint itself and the dozens of additional contractors/painters that had to put it on must have far exceeded the few required for carving and gilding. Under Oliver Cromwell a ship's paint budget was cut down to 80 Pounds a year for Second rate ships. Must have made for very monotone boring paint jobs during the 1650s.
Here's a funny one. English Restoration Era Ships that "looked SLUTTISH enough" after a winter season were given new paint as part of their refit. I wonder what determined how "sluttish" it would have to look? LOL
Laughton makes the observation that the English used linseed oil specifically on their "blackwork" and black paint, but that the Spanish did not. The Spaniards used lead.
This makes me want to research and write my own book on the subject of paint because of the lack of work in the area. Since I suck at writing historical fiction maybe I will be better at historical documentation.
This is just a sampling .... I have thousands of books in my library - Dozens that I haven't even read or looked at. I wanted to digest them during retirement before I die. I do not think I will read them all before then - I'd rather go sailing, fishing, drinking.....and of course play COAS and POTC.
Edit: I don't know why I bother with researching things like this. No one really cares anyway. I wont do it again. MK
MK
