HMS Mersey gets 700-litre paint job – by hand – as crew pick colours for interior
Painstaking work and hundreds of litres of paint have gone into the creation of the dazzling new colour scheme of HMS Mersey.
Currently housed in the dry dock at Falmouth, Cornwall, the Royal Navy's River-class offshore patrol vessel is the last of her kind class to have the Western Approaches colour scheme applied to her exterior.
The colour scheme is a nod to history, replicating specific patterns applied to ships during the Second World War, particularly those involved in convoy duty in the North Atlantic – and it's all being painted by hand.
"We're currently receiving the Western Approaches paint scheme," said Lieutenant Commander James Mitchell, Commanding Officer of HMS Mersey.
"A system that has been painted on our sisters Severn and Tyne and was developed during World War Two and painted onto some of the units assigned to the home fleet, the Western Approaches command.
"Designed to blend those units operating in the north Atlantic and around UK waters into the colours that they're operating in."
Seven hundred litres of paint have been used to create the colour scheme on HMS Mersey's exterior.
The interior of the vessel is also undergoing maintenance while the exterior painting project takes place.
This involves taking apart her engines for a piece-by-piece deep clean, and the crew also have a chance to pick the decor for the ship's recreation space.
Able Seaman Rachel-Stella Layton said it was amazing for the crew to see their ship stripped away, but they were looking forward to "having our ship back" to her full operational effectiveness.
But there's a lot of work goes into preparing the ship before the first brush stroke.
Matt Weetch, director of defence at commercial ship repair and conversion specialist A&P Group Limited, explained: "First of all, there's a high-pressure washing for the whole vessel.
"The ship is then primed, undercoated, and then painted with a full topcoat of grey.
"With regards to the Western Approaches scheme, the specialist painters do it all by hand, so first they'll do a chalk line to get the pattern correct, then use masking tape to put a detailed line for the paint, then they'll use brushes and rollers to actually paint the vessel the different colours – your normal hand rollers and paint brushes you'd paint your house with."
Mersey is expected to return to sea in the next few weeks after the painting project is completed.
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