Camouflage painting on ocean liners during World War 1

During World War 1 a military camouflage paint, also known as dazzle camouflage, was extensively used on navy ships and ships which e.g. were used for troop transports.

This is how Cunard´s RMS Aquitania looked in "razzle dazzle" paint: 

The Deutsche Ost-Afrika-Linie´s Feldmarschall had a somewhat different dazzle paint: 

The dazzle camouflage scheme consisted of a pattern of geometric shapes in contrasting colors, interrupting and intersecting each other: 

At first glance dazzle seems an unlikely form of camouflage, drawing attention to the ship rather than hiding it, but this technique was developed after the Allied Navies were unable to develop effective means to disguise ships in all weathers.

Dazzle did not conceal the ship but made it difficult for the enemy to estimate its type, size, speed and heading. The idea was to disrupt the visual rangefinders used for naval artillery. Its purpose was confusion rather than concealment. An observer would find it difficult to know exactly whether the stern or the bow was in view; and it would be equally difficult to estimate whether the observed vessel was moving towards or away from the observer's position.