The following picture is of the finished book.
The Easter Egg Fleet is the title of my book about U S ship camouflage in the First World War. The name comes from a comment by someone who, upon seeing a convoy of First World War camouflaged ships, is said to have remarked that the colorful assembly looked like a fleet of floating Easter eggs.
The book includes chapters on the history, development, and application of ship camouflage. It has a reference section with the actual patterns designed for American ships, both warships and merchant vessels. Entries are made of the patterns, lists of ships known to have carried the pattern, contemporary photo(s) of a ship in that pattern, and often, a picture of one of my models painted in the pattern. The main criteria for inclusion were locating a contemporary photograph of a ship in camouflage and being able to match the pattern to a known example. I also found textual references to patterns carried. They are also included even when I do not have a photograph.
The book includes over 300 actual camouflage patterns, both port and starboard sides. These patterns were actually used on nearly 600 ships that appear in the indices.
The book is was released on Nov 1st, 2020. ISBN 978-965-92737-0-3. It is available from book sellers on line. Just look for the ISBN.
Since the book was released I’ve found more information which I intend to incorporate in a future revised edition. I’ve also found a few errors. I’ve made and errata list that is in my blog entry for 17 Aug 2021.
About 2 years ago, after the preparation of many items, my wife and I traveled to the US to see family. When we returned I went to my computer to see what had happened during our absence. I also connected my off line hard disc backup. While going through the accumulated e-mails I found one that I thought was from another ship model collector. How wrong I was! It was a virus that encrypted everything on my computer, including my off-line backup. I did not pay a ransom. But I was left with an enormous task of recovering missing data. Most of the first draft of the book was completely lost.
Wetherhorn 