Research Note

• Erik A. R. Romberg's valuable monograph on paint and colors from 1800 to 1920, provided on the Nautical Research Guild's web-site. On page 11, he describes "Red Copper Antifouling" as being in wide use after 1865. "Brown Copper Antifouling" as being "in use after 1865", thus suggesting it was less popular than the Red. The monograph deals explicitly with American merchant vessels; however, I've heard it said that the advice on colors could apply to any of the paints available in the timeframes discussed, and so could apply to warship paints as well.
• In January 2003, there was a dialog on SSL on a type of antifouling paint called "salmon pink". Lars Bruzelius contributed with a reference to a company called Peacock & Buchanan whose catalog (10th ed) was published in 1874. This catalog had an entry "Anti-Fouling (Salmon Colour) - for Iron Ships' Bottoms..."He thought that the Company might still be in business today.
• A more cautionary tale is contained in the book "Warrior to Dreadnought – Warship Development 1860 - 1905" by D.K.Brown, pub. 1997 by Chapman, London. It has a number of references to the struggle to minimise the fouling of both wooded-hulled and iron/steel-hulled ships, which was particularly damaging to their performance in tropical waters. Copper plating (over wood sheathing in the case of metal hulls) was dominant as a palliative until the late 19th c. for Royal Navy ships intended for use in tropical waters. One footnote in the book identifies what appears to be a particular manufacturer's brands introduced in 1879. The footnote opines that typical Antifouling paints of the time were likely to be as lethal to the painter as to the barnacles! The book text hints that the early Antifouling paints were not very effective until near the end of the 19th c. It seems that prior to 1898, many classes of British warship potentially to be deployed in the tropics had some at least among their numbers sheathed in copper. In the "Cressy" class of armored cruiser, laid down 1898-1899, none were sheathed and coppered "as successful Antifouling paints were now available". Even so, Brown writes that the Antifouling coatings had to be renewed after every year. Presumably, the saving in weight and first cost by avoiding coppering was more important than having to dock the ship once a year. I've read somewhere that coppered ships usually had to have the plating cleaned off every two years to avoid a significant loss in performance.

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