Hi All,
I was looking once more at Ken's wonderfully painstaking and interesting renderings of the Lusitania foundering in the Ballard/Dunmore book and again noticed the life rings in the final sinking painting (stern on) are both red and white - I have not seen any life rings like this from this period aboard the Mauretania or any other ship.
Most interesting, the candid photographs, pre-war, I have seen on board the Lusitania herself clearly show pure white rings.
I recall clearly the red and white life ring I had the chance to ID from the Mauretania was post war. A minor point with such startling accuracy in Ken's work to be sure, but does anyone have any further data on this? As far as I can tell, this red and white idea seemed to spring up just postwar or thereabouts?
All the rings I have unpublished/candid photographs that show solid white rings on the Mauretania (and other candid Cunard photographs from other liners of the fleet show the same) until c. 1920 - certainly white during the 1912-1915 period with the first red and white ring photo in my collection having a "hard" date from a 1924 - tint aside one can see it is two tone - other red and white ring images perhaps a bit earlier.
Did some liners of that period use red and white rings? Even the early
Olympic life rings are just plain white - I am thinking of an early starboard wing bridge photo that shows a ring mounted to the side of the bridge extension or nearby - posted by Mr. Bob Godfrey some years back here at ET.
Also, the few mini life ring barber shop souvenirs I have seen from
Olympic's early career (and similar souvenirs from the Lusitania I believe) are all solid white (with the souvenir writing and flags in color of course). The Olympic life ring I had the opportunity to examine up close in 2002 was red and white but clearly from the later portion of her career. From the yellowed, flaking nature of the paint it seemed to be typical lower quality lead white, possibly extended with "whiting" (chalk) and ground in boiled linseed oil (common and cheaper for "industrial purposes")with some driers apparently added, although I understand
no lead was to be used on WSL ships where any passenger could come in contact with them, but it sure had all the tell tale signs of lead white including brushtroke/application indications which I am familiar with from my decades of painting with that specific material and the flaking seen when good adhesion has not been achieved. By that time though the dangers of "plumbism" (artists lead poisoning) were well know for centuries so I doubt it was actually white lead. Zinc white is a very cool white, even if ground to a paint in boiled linseed oil which does yellow, especially with driers and of course whatever influence the substrate exerted. But zinc it has a very different look when dry. On the other hand, it is very fragile as a film and prone to flaking as seen on the Olympic ring. Titanium white was not introduced until 1921 and also has a warm tone so this pigment is a possibility for the later Olympic and Mauretania ring from what I saw but I think that produced a much tougher and resilient film.
I've always wondered about this rather small point - when did the red and white color scheme get introduced? For visibility sure, but when? The only other data I have found is that life rings in the Austro-Hungarian Navy are said to be red and white after 1910 but this I can not substantiate and it does not jibe with the many observations above. Any help appreciated!
Best and my thanks,
Eric
PS - One other thing I can think of is a glass lantern slide I have - a promo Cunard travel image from 1914 that shows a little girl with a white life ring - ann odd image to say the last!
