A cannon chainshot

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by fernando

Still in the XIX century this kind of procedure was adopted. In the Portuguese frigate Dom Fernando e Gloria, launched in 1843, one of the last sailing war ships, having sailed the India route during 33 years and set fire after its retirement in the Lisbon harbour, having later been faithfully restored upon its survived hull, not the deck but all gun carriages, were painted red for the mentioned purposes, as noted by its present officer in charge.


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Fernando, I am remiss in not thanking you for this great entry on the painting of gun carraiges red in honor of this practice/tradition. I am wondering if any form of this remained vestigially after the age of sail in modern naval vessels.

I know that often these kinds of things in military parlance remain in practice as certain traditional recognition and remembrance.
With the British cavalry for example, in the Battle of Aliwal (1846) the 16th lancers charged against a huge force of Sikh's, and while victorious, they lost 144 of 300 men. In action, the lance pennon is furled, and in the grim aftermath, it was discovered that the pennons were crimped by dried blood.
It became a 16th Lancers tradition to always crimp their pennons in honor of that costly victory.

While the analogy is off topic, it goes to the question of these sometimes ambiguous traditions in many instances which harken to circumstances or events in the past which are held in high importance.