vessels have a red color [The History]

till the 19th century, all ships were built from wood. Mid of half of the 1800s saw surpassing growth in the iron and steel industry, with iron and steel making its way into the shipbuilding industry. Sailboats were replaced by steam engines.
The red colored hull story back to the time before the industrial revolution.

Being an organic complex and having a porous frame, wooden hulls were always subjected to rot, with wood eating worms & barnacles and seaweed fast tracking the process.
Moreover, slow ship speed, rough hulls proved it to be an ideal accelerator for the operation.

The speed of the ship got extremely affected. Damages suffered by the hull due to the growth of marine organisms increased the weight of the ship, herewith increasing tow. therefore, the ship’s speed also got affected frequently.

For vessels, red is an important color. It has to do with their hulls. Why vessels have a red color? cause it is done for tradition and may be efficiency reasons or both!

Vessels are made of wood in the past centuries. However vessels today are not common wooden ships but steel vessels with numerous types of wharf like carbon paints instead of copper oxide paints in spite of what they used before (copper oxide paint was invented by British navy in 1860.) So why vessels’ hulls are still painted red as vessels used to be.

It is because that copper-oxide-bearing paints known as “antifouling paint”. None of which need to be red. Antifouling paints are painted on vessels to stop growth of marine organisms such as plants, animals & micro-organisms that could seal the water intake systems and reduce vessel speed.

Antifouling paint is also used as a measure against biofouling which refers to unwanted organism like plants or animals attaching themselves to vessels’ hulls.
Vessels can be active in dirty waters where there is high risk of biofouling so vessels should avoid it at all cost. But would vessels paint their hulls rather than red color?

Vessel’s hulls are red because red paint provides long-term stability under exposure to sun light by efficiently reflecting ultraviolet radiation away from metal, vessel’s hulls tend to oxidize quickly if left not painted.

Furthermore, red vessels are easier to spot from a distance in the world’s oceans, which is why vessels have a red color. The red paint vessels use also prevents corrosion of hulls by minimizing salt water damage & may be efficiency reasons too.

Why vessels have a red color? Vessel’s hulls are generally painted red because it efficiently reflects ultraviolet radiation away from metal; vessels’ hulls tend to oxidize quickly if left not painted. It is tradition for vessels to have a red color while antifouling paints could be other colors but vessels still using red paint although they are not made of wood anymore or vessels avoid biofouling issues at all costs.

Antifouling:

To counter the surpassing growth of marine organisms on the hull, the shipbuilders required something that could ward off the immense outgrowth of marine life at the bottom of the hull. Here is where antifouling came into play. Antifouling has now emerged as one of the most important areas of research for modern shipbuilders & maritime bodies worldwide.

The scientific method of designing structures & coatings & materials to ward off marine growth on any submerged structure is named antifouling.

One of the oldest methods of antifouling composed of placing copper sheets on the hull of the vessel. The copper sheet served as a barrier from the incoming marine organisms, big worms, from reaching the wooden hull. These copper sheets that were used were actually red in color. that is what gave the hull its original reddish color.

Modern developments:

The emergence of iron and steel reached the shipping industry, and things did change the entire time . Wooden hulls are now in antiquity with iron ships being the bread & butter of the global supply chain. though, the issue of drag being caused by marine life still remains.
With companies increasingly pressing on to cost effectiveness to maximize profit & antifouling has emerged as an extremely significant subject for the maritime sector.

These days; ship’s hulls are painted with copper oxide bearing paints known as antifouling paint.
none of which need to be red. But again, the shipping industry is not similar any other industry around. We believe in honoring nautical traditions as so we choose red.

Copper oxide has a reddish color, thus giving the paint it’s much famous red color. That’s why ships are painted red below the hull.

As the primary biocide Tri Butyl-Tin “TBT” served as a deterrent against the growth of marine organisms on the ship’s hull even a few years back.

However, researches showed the adverse effects TBT had on the marine eco system.

Nowadays, self eroding paints or self-polishing polymers serve this purpose. These are environment friendly paints which are engineered in such a way that it gets removed by water flow. Ship movement washes one layer of the self eroding paint after another, which I turn prevents the outgrowth of any marine life on the surface of the ship’s hull.

Bright color?! 

other reason can be traced in the contrast of the red hull to the seawater, which demonstrates if a load of cargo is overweight: The more cargo a ship is carrying, the deeper it enters the water. Meantime, the red color at sea can be very easily captured by passing by helicopters in case of an emergency.