by dick » Fri May 22, 2026 7:12 am
philgollin wrote: Thu May 21, 2026 6:34 am
There are lots of "definite" statements, but also lots of indefinite (e.g. name of supplier but not [say] black or grey ... etc ...) and, unfortunately, quite a few missing mostly because the ships' books are missing.
Thank you for your kind words about the book Phil.
By way of explanation for others on that particular point, something I deliberately set out not to do was to say anything was 'definite' unless I found evidence for it it in some contemporary document. The 'indefinite' is deliberate as I did not want to risk misleading people or misrepresenting the record by writing up as a fact something I had found no evidence for. So in the ship-by-ship list what you get is what is to be found in the archives. However in those situations where the only record is that of the name of supplier of the paint used on a ship and you therefore have a potential choice of two colours, eg black or grey and black or red, I hope my section on deducing the colour in this situation on pages 14-16 will help identify which was in practice the most likely option.
It does indeed say something about the size of the RN then that with over 850 vessels covered there were so many more for which no records survive. I found is so sad that so much had obviously been destroyed.
Best wishes,
Richard
[quote=philgollin post_id=1103615 time=1779363289 user_id=381751]
There are lots of "definite" statements, but also lots of indefinite (e.g. name of supplier but not [say] black or grey ... etc ...) and, unfortunately, quite a few missing mostly because the ships' books are missing.
[/quote]
Thank you for your kind words about the book Phil.
By way of explanation for others on that particular point, something I deliberately set out not to do was to say anything was 'definite' unless I found evidence for it it in some contemporary document. The 'indefinite' is deliberate as I did not want to risk misleading people or misrepresenting the record by writing up as a fact something I had found no evidence for. So in the ship-by-ship list what you get is what is to be found in the archives. However in those situations where the only record is that of the name of supplier of the paint used on a ship and you therefore have a potential choice of two colours, eg black or grey and black or red, I hope my section on deducing the colour in this situation on pages 14-16 will help identify which was in practice the most likely option.
It does indeed say something about the size of the RN then that with over 850 vessels covered there were so many more for which no records survive. I found is so sad that so much had obviously been destroyed.
Best wishes,
Richard