Gould’s
information came from a remarkable parliamentary record, which documents an Admiralty
investigation into two ships spotted trapped in an iceberg off the coast of
Newfoundland in 1851 (Inglis 1852). The investigation focused on comparing the
eyewitness testimony about the iceberg ships to the firsthand knowledge of the
shipwrights who worked on Erebus and Terror. While the Admiralty determined that the
iceberg ships could not be Franklin’s vessels (the size difference between the
ships was too large and they were not barque-rigged ),
the report contains critical primary information on the paint scheme of the
Erebus and Terror from Oliver Lang, the master shipwright responsible for the 1845 refit of
the vessels.
The
correspondence between Lang and the Admiralty is worth quoting here in its
entirety (Inglis 1852:18):
Admiralty,
17 April 1852.
Sir,
I am commanded
by my Lords Commissioners of the
Admiralty to desire
you to call upon the officers of the yard under your
superintendence to
report how Sir John Franklin's ships, the " Erebus"
and " Terror," were
painted when they sailed.
I am &c.
(signed) J. H. Hay,
pro Secretary.
Commodore Superintendent Eden,
Woolwich.
Woolwich Yard, 17 April
1852.
Sir,
With reference to their Lordships' letter of this day's date, we
beg to
acquaint you, that Sir John Franklin's ships, the " Erebus " and " Terror,"
were painted when they sailed, black on the outside, and
weather works
inside yellow.
We are, &c.
(signed)
O. Lang,
Master Shipwright
Further
information about the colour of the masts was also requested from Lang and
appears below (Inglis 1852:35).
Admiralty,
2 June 1852.
Commodore Superintendent at Woolwich,
Referring to your communication of the 17th April last, upon the
subject
of painting
the " Erebus" and "'Terror," my Lords desire that you will
state
for their information how their lower masts were painted.
By command
of their Lordships.
(signed) W. A. B. Hamilton.
Woolwich
Yard, 2 June 1852.
Sir,
Agreeably to your minute on Captain Hamilton's letter of yesterday,
we have to acquaint you that the lower masts of the
"Erebus" and "Terror"
were painted white when they left this port.
We
are, &c.
(signed)
O. Lang,
Master
Shipwright..
H. Chatfteld, Assistant ditto.'
(Mr. Peake sick.)
The Commodore Superintendent.
Submitted for the information of their Lordships.
Henry Eden, Commodore Superintendent.
The Secretary
of the Admiralty
Lang’s
choice of words in the first correspondence appears to be the source of the
enduring discrepancy regarding the ships’ paint schemes. It seems Gould, followed
by Cyriax, and then myriad others, interpreted the phrase “weather works inside
yellow” to mean a band of yellow on the outside hull of the vessel. Indeed,
the “weather works”, or upper works of a ship, are those areas of the vessel above
the waterline exposed to the weather, including the upper hull and bulwarks both
inside towards the deck and outside on the hull. However, Lang specifically states
that the “weather works inside
“ were yellow, meaning that the inside bulwarks were painted yellow. He makes
no mention of a stripe on the outside hull, although a solid paint scheme without
a stripe would have been unusual for a Royal Navy vessel of the era.
Thankfully,
a watercolour painting by
Owen Stanley, who accompanied the ships across the North Atlantic to Greenland in
1845, provides important primary evidence which dispels much ambiguity (see
below). The painting shows conclusively that the Terror and Erebus had black
hulls with a white stripe along the outside weather works. The painting indicates that the white stripe was
contiguous with the chock channel and that it ascended the outside stern frame of
the Erebus at an angle. Another watercolour, which may
also be the work of Stanley (it is clearly based on his
1845 drawing),
confirms these characteristics, and also shows the yellow painting on the inside
bulwarks (note also the very rusted condition of the iron bow plating). This image
also suggests that the white stripe extended forward around the knee of the
ship.
 |
| Owen Stanley, 1845, "Signal to Terror, opportunity for sending letters to England, 4 June 1845", courtesy National Library of Australia. |
The presence of a single stripe along the hull, which extended around the knee of the ship and up the exterior stern frames, appears to be confirmed in other contemporary sketches by Stanley, Gore (also here), and Fitzjames, as well as by the Illustrated London News (which also confirms the white stripe on the outside stern frame, see below).
 |
A
white stripe painted on the exterior weather works is entirely consistent with
Royal Navy standards of the mid-19th century. Yellow and black
striping, or the “Nelson Checker”, was common in the Royal Navy vessels up to
about 1815. However, after ca. 1815, Royal Navy vessels began to adopt the black
on white pattern first established by the American Navy around the turn of the 19th
century. In fact, black hulls with white stripes remained the standard paint
scheme of Royal Navy vessels well into the steam era (see Konstam 2010 for good
summary). It therefore seems obvious,
given all of the available data, that Erebus and Terror were painted with the
standard white on black scheme of the era, which may explain why Lang didn’t
deem it necessary to mention this standard attribute to the Admiralty.
Most
Royal Navy ships placed the white stripe over the gun ports above the waterline;
when opened, the ports/lids created the “checker board” pattern. However, all
contemporary images of the Franklin ships show that the white band corresponded
with the solid chock channels grafted on to the ships. It is important to note
that this paint scheme is different than that utilized during the 1839 Ross voyage,
where the ships appear to have had two bands of white on the outside
weather works. A watercolor
of HMS Terror by Davis shows that one of the white stripes was contiguous with the
chock channels, as in the 1845 expedition, while the other white stripe was a
little lower, perhaps contiguous with the band of copper sheathing that
extended below the chock channels for most of the ships' length at this time.
The
colour of the top, horizontal, surface of the channel is less certain, as the Stanley
watercolours provide little detail in these areas. One of Stanley’s sketches (see
here) seems to
indicate that the tops of the channels were black, while another suggests they
were potentially white (see here). However, the
famous image from the Illustrated London News clearly shows that that the top
of the channels were painted white (see image above). An image of the Terror beached on the Irish
Coast in 1837 by Owen Stanley (see below) also shows that the tops of the
channels may have been painted white (or at least a lighter colour), though how
consistently the ships were painted on subsequent voyages is unknown. Since the
paint scheme is ambiguous, I intend to try both versions on the model and
choose whichever seems to fit better with the overall colour scheme of the
ship.
Similarly,
contradictory information exists about the paint scheme on the rudder and
transom of the ships. The 1845
watercolour by Owen Stanley seems to show that the transom and rudder were painted
black, although the lighting effects on the painting suggest that those areas
of the ships may simply be in shadow. Other contemporary sketches by Stanley and Graham Gore (also here) suggest that
a lighter colour was painted on the stern window frames and on the entire transom
of the ship, while the rudder remained black (perhaps with white trim?). The Illustrated London News image is slightly
different (see above), showing a thinner arch of white surrounding the windows of
the ship and a darkly painted rudder.
Colour
paintings of the Erebus and Terror produced for the Antarctic expedition by Davis (see also here) show that the entire transom was painted white and the rudder was
black, again perhaps with white trim (although lighting might play a factor
here as well). Interestingly, the Davis paintings also show detail of an
arch-shaped feature surrounding the windows. Similarly, a sketch of the Terror from 1837,
by Owen Stanley, indicates that the transom was painted completely white (Back
1838:400). A water colour of the Terror on
the same voyage by William
Smyth
also shows an all white transom, this time with a white rudder.
.jpg)
On balance, the available sketches and paintings suggest that the transom was painted completely white, and that the window frames were as well. The rudder is more ambiguous, but again, the weight of evidence seems to indicate that it was painted black, perhaps with white trim (the Terror did have several separate trim pieces grafted to the aft margin of the rudder).
I assume the black hull paint extended to the keel, as we
know that HMS Terror and Erebus were not coppered below the waterline, as noted
in The Times on 26th
April, 1845:
“The decks of the Erebus and
Terror are constructed on the diagonal principle,
and about twenty feet on each
side of the bows has been cased with strong sheet
iron. There is not any copper
sheathing on either of the vessels, as no danger is
to be apprehended from the attacks
of shellfish or barnacles, the ice soon clearing
them from encumbrances of
that description.”
(The Times, London, 26 April 1845)
This
is in contrast with the Illustrated London News image of the ships which
appears to show a copper plated hull, which must be an error.
One
of the things I enjoy about ship modeling is that it is woodworking – often
with very fine hardwoods. Like many ship modelers, I don’t want to cover beautiful wood with paint; instead, I intend to present the Terror’s historic
paint scheme using minimally treated natural or dyed/stained wood finishes. My
plan is to use dyed or stained Swiss pear for the
keel, stem and stern timbers, and hull planking; holly for the
transom, chock, and deck planking; and yellowheart for the
inside bulwarks. I’ve order the material from Hobby Mill, all planed to exact scale thicknesses,
which I will discuss in future posts. My
wood arrives in early December; until then, I will keep cutting stations!
References
Cited:
Gould,
Rupert T.
1928 Oddities.
Frederick A. Stokes Company, London .
Inglis, R.H.
1852
Vessels in the North Atlantic. House
of Common Parliamentary Papers, London.
Konstam, Angus
2010 Naval Miscellany. Osprey Publishing, Oxford.
