On 10/18/2014 10:26 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 21:48:38 -0400, "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.

Is this the article

https://www.uscg.mil/history/articles/StripeHistory.pdf

It pretty much confirms my experience although it is coincidental. The
DOT took over the CG in 67 and that as about when the bureaucratic
inertia caught up with JFK's idea and the stripe started to be pained
on the ships.


According to the article it took almost five years to do all the
research, planning, prototyping and testing for the new "image" and the
final design was approved and began to be implemented in 1967 as you stated.

I also thought the comments regarding USCG sailing vessel "Eagle" were
interesting. Many thought the "racing stripe" was inappropriate for the
Eagle but it was finally added in preparation of the bicentennial
celebrations in 1976 to distinguish it from other participating tall
ships. The new "look" was received well by everyone.

For some reason I guess I always assumed the stripe dated much further
back in time and had a more global history and nautical significance.
Then again, I was in the Navy from 1968 to 1977 and never saw too many
Coast Guard boats, ships or aircraft.