"Mr. Luddite" wrote:
On 10/18/2014 9:12 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 20:07:16 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 18:37:21 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 10/18/2014 6:09 PM, F*O*A*D wrote:
On 10/18/14 6:00 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:


Was reading about the Russian tanker that is adrift without propulsion
off the Canadian coast. The article included a picture of a Canadian
Coast Guard ship that had been towing it away from the rocky shoreline.

I became curious as to the origin of the "racing stripe" that appears on
many nation's Coast Guard ships, including those of the USA. Never
thought about it before. It has an interesting history (to me anyway).

The stripe was added to US Coast Guard ships in the early 1960's by
direction of John F. Kennedy. Before then there was no stripe and the
US Navy was often erroneously given credit by the general public for
rescue missions that were actually performed by the USCG.

Kennedy had commissioned an industrial designer by the name of Raymond
Loewy to come up with a new paint scheme and cosmetic design for Air
Force ONE. Kennedy was delighted with the new look of the aircraft and
had Loewy come up with a unique design for USCG vessels that would make
them unique and distinguishable. Thus, the "Racing Stripe" was born.

It has since been adopted by many other nations to identify their Coast
Guard ships.


Thanks, didn't know that. Loewy was more than "an industrial designer,"
BTW. He was *the* or at least among the top few industrial designer(s)
of the 20th Century. I remember him as the designer of the Studebaker
Avanti, but he had lots of amazing credits.



Forgot to mention ... the color of the stripes (wide red with narrow
blue) on a white hull or orange/white on a black hull defines what the
purpose or function of the ship/vessel is. Forgot what is what.

===

The CG boats with black hulls are generally working boats like buoy
tenders.


Or the blackout boats they use for various interdiction activities.

I never actually saw wide spread use of the racing stripe until the
late 60s, about the time the CG went to DOT and we got the funny
donald duck hats.
http://gfretwell.com/ftp/USCG%20Donald%20Duck%20hat.jpg

That was a short lived thing and they got the 20th century looking
uniforms a few years later that they use today.


The racing stripe started on the smaller boats and worked it's way up
to the weather cutters right before I got out in 71. I think the
Chincoteague had one on my last cruise but I wouldn't swear to it. I
know for sure the Absecon and Mendota did not.



I thought it was interesting that the stripe design originated in 1963
and was unique to the US Coast Guard but now many nations have adopted it
to distinguish Coast Guard vessels from Navy vessels.

Surprised me also. Having seen the same stripe basically in a lot of
different countries. Is actually a good thing. When in Costa Rica, you
knew that they were around and may rescue you if the small boats they use
got in trouble.