15 Historical Photos You Won't Believe Are Real

12. USS West Mahomet - The Black-And-White "Camouflage" Ship

Uss West Mahomet Id 3681 Cropped
Wikipedia/NavalHistoryAndHeritageCommandWebsite

It may look like a boat owned by a devout Newcastle United fan - but this is actually the commonly used ship camouflage used during World War I.

Artist Norman Wilkinson is credited with having come up with the design - that consisted of unusual patterns of geometric shapes in contrasting colours - which became known as "dazzle camouflage" or "razzle dazzle".

This style of camouflage was adopted by both the British Admiralty and the US Navy during the Great War - and the boat above is the USS West Mahomet - but controversy struck when Pablo Picasso claimed the cubist movement invented this style of painting.

 
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Contributor

NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.