# Fluorescent Orange?



## einar thomassen

so many of the ships now have their flying bridge dodgers painted orange, does not add to the ships apperance, any reasons for this? 
I sailed from 1948 to 1957 as an OS, AB, second and third mate for Mobil oil and Keystone shipping on their tankers, never saw orange dodgers on any flying bridge. Looking for a reply, thanks, einar thomassen


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## Coastie

Yes. It makes sure that the ship is the right way up! If you can't see it, the ship must be the wrong way up!


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## John Rogers

Easy to spot from an aircraft for sure.

John


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## John Cassels

For crane drivers.


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## vasco

The plain boring reason is high vis. lot easier to spot in fog than eau de nil or white.

Mind you, perhaps they had to find something to do with the left over lifeboat paint.


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## Jan Hendrik

You will mainly find this fluorescent orange as a wide stripe on top of the superstructure on dredgers.
The reason for this is obvious as dredgers are mostly stationary and it serves as a navigational aid to upcoming vessels then.

It is not a left over from life boat paint.... you require a white undercoat of some sort, thereafter apply two coats of this fluorescent orange, 
followed by 1 coat of special UV resistant varnish as the product itself is not UV proof.
Jan


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## MervynHutton

It can also help in moderate visibility to determine the aspect of the vessel, are you looking at it from 45 degrees on the bow or 45 degrees on the quarter? It is not always immediately apparent. If on the bow you will see the flourescent dodgers, if on the quarter you will not.


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## Stephen J. Card

Personally I think the flourescent stripe achieves nothing at all. 

In fog there might not even be enough light to be reflected and if there is by the time you can see the top of the wheelhouse the other fellow's bow is already lodged between Nos 3 and four hatches!

As a first tripper I misheard the mate and thought he said '****' Orange instead of 'Dayglow'. I wondered what on earth the connection was between Dagoes and orange!

Same as sidelight boxes being painted matte black. I can't see how one small patch of black paint is going to reflect red and green any better than the previously used red and green backgrounds.

Of course teh advantage of red and green painted boxes means that in daylight with no lights on you can still tell port from starboard!

Stephen


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## Stephen J. Card

MervynHutton said:


> It can also help in moderate visibility to determine the aspect of the vessel, are you looking at it from 45 degrees on the bow or 45 degrees on the quarter? It is not always immediately apparent. If on the bow you will see the flourescent dodgers, if on the quarter you will not.



Of course not seeing the stripe might also mean that there isn't one there at all! With all the nav aids we have today it sure seems odd that we would rely on seeing a thin strip of orange paint to determine the aspect of anyther vessel.

Stephen


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## vasco

Jan Hendrik said:


> You will mainly find this fluorescent orange as a wide stripe on top of the superstructure on dredgers.
> The reason for this is obvious as dredgers are mostly stationary and it serves as a navigational aid to upcoming vessels then.
> 
> *It is not a left over from life boat paint*.... you require a white undercoat of some sort, thereafter apply two coats of this fluorescent orange,
> followed by 1 coat of special UV resistant varnish as the product itself is not UV proof.
> Jan


Oh yes it was!!!

Its not the flourescence I was thinking about, just the higher visibility of dodgers as opposed to using traditional colours


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## RayJordandpo

Slightly off thread but about flourescent paint on ships. On a dive support vessel I thought I would do the divers a favour and painted anything that goes below sea level flourescent orange, e.g. crane hooks, taut wire weights etc. any object that would be passed down to the diver. I honestly thought I was doing them a service and it would aid visibility underwater. How wrong was I! The divers compained that it was like looking at a black object on deck at night. It appears the only colour acceptable underwater is white or yellow.


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## Klaatu83

I've been on a few ships where certain panels around the exterior of the bridge were painted international orange. I believe it was done to render the vessel more conspicuous in fog, and it actually does work, to a certain extent. Since most ships have white superstructures, they tend to disappear in fog. Adding a splash of orange paint does make them a little bit more conspicuous when coming out of the fog and, the sooner you spot a ship coming at you, the sooner you can take evasive action, if necessary.


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## John Rogers

Stephen J. Card said:


> Personally I think the flourescent stripe achieves nothing at all.
> 
> In fog there might not even be enough light to be reflected and if there is by the time you can see the top of the wheelhouse the other fellow's bow is already lodged between Nos 3 and four hatches!
> 
> As a first tripper I misheard the mate and thought he said '****' Orange instead of 'Dayglow'. I wondered what on earth the connection was between Dagoes and orange!
> 
> Same as sidelight boxes being painted matte black. I can't see how one small patch of black paint is going to reflect red and green any better than the previously used red and green backgrounds.
> 
> 
> 
> Of course teh advantage of red and green painted boxes means that in daylight with no lights on you can still tell port from starboard!
> 
> Stephen


Stephen,
Your post brings back memories when I was in the army,the command policy or orders were to throw a camo net over our vehicles and field guns to hide them from the enemy,I alway hated that process and alway made a comment like.(What the hell for they have infra ed cameras and all the camo in the world is not going to hide you,plus one bad camo gun being observed will get the same amount of incoming fire as a good camo gun sitting a few feet away) made no sense to me,using old tactics on a modern battlefield.

John


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## Stephen J. Card

John Rogers said:


> Stephen,
> Your post brings back memories when I was in the army,the command policy or orders were to throw a camo net over our vehicles and field guns to hide them from the enemy,I alway hated that process and alway made a comment like.(What the hell for they have infra ed cameras and all the camo in the world is not going to hide you,plus one bad camo gun being observed will get the same amount of incoming fire as a good camo gun sitting a few feet away) made no sense to me,using old tactics on a modern battlefield.
> 
> John



No different from painting army vehicles in 'camo' and then painting an identifying "V" in black all over!

RN ships painted in pale blue/grey, USN ships in dark grey, Portuguese naval vessels in green/grey, Sea Shepherds in black..... I wonder which one works the best!

Stephen


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## John Rogers

None when they are painted with a laser beam before the big bang hits them.

John


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## Jan Hendrik

Of course you could use life boat "left over" orange for all sorts of reasons, yet the fluorescent orange and standard orange topcoats are two different paints.
The fluorescent orange is light reflective, we used to call it Hi-Vee orange or Hi-Vee yellow/green/even red.
The latter was and still is also used on channel buoys.

Standard orange topcoat or orange enamel is not light reflective but does of course give a brighter perspective instead of using grey/black or whatever. For this reason vessels to the antarctic are painted in these bright colours (not the reflective type).
Jan


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## Stephen J. Card

Jan Hendrik said:


> For this reason vessels to the antarctic are painted in these bright colours (not the reflective type).
> Jan




Hmmmm.... everyone except the Japanese whalers and the Sea Shepherds chasing them!

I think the first ships down to the Antarctic painted in his visibility colours were probably the Lauritzen ships on charter to MOD... I think!

Stephen


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## G0SLP

I too thought that ships regularly operating in Arctic/Antarctic waters, such as HMS Endurance, RRS James Clark Ross etc were painted red so that they simply stand out more against the white of the ice & snow. Also light aircraft operating in Alaska are, I believe, predominantly red or another strong colour, in order to help SAR operations if one were to have to put down in emergency


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## Dartskipper

Klaatu83 said:


> I've been on a few ships where certain panels around the exterior of the bridge were painted international orange. I believe it was done to render the vessel more conspicuous in fog, and it actually does work, to a certain extent. Since most ships have white superstructures, they tend to disappear in fog. Adding a splash of orange paint does make them a little bit more conspicuous when coming out of the fog and, the sooner you spot a ship coming at you, the sooner you can take evasive action, if necessary.



If you can't see in fog, you can't see in fog. That's why the Collision Regs tell you to use other methods to notify other ships of your position, i.e. Fog Horn or siren when under way, a bell or gong when at anchor, and of course that whirly thing halfway up the foremast might also help you see other ships. If you are looking at the glowing thing in the wheelhouse, that is! And if you are in restricted waters, shouldn't you drop the hook anyway?


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## Pete D Pirate

.
I'd had a bit to do with the requirement for visibility under difficult conditions.
Simply put, it had been determined that black and yellow diagonal striping offered the best all-round solution.


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## spongebob

I got a new company car, a Toyota Carona, in the early 70's when new cars were very hard to come by due to import restrictions in NZ. 
It was a most vivid bright orange colour and no other options were available.
People asked me in the street, "why did you buy that colour" and at other times did not choose to park near me. A safety colour? More likely a leper's cloak, but one of the most reliable cars I ever had after company owned Hillmans,
Cortinas , andAustin 1100's.

Bob


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