Color of life ring on USN LCM3?

[dnl42]

I need to figure out the color of the life ring shown on the image below. I've been searching the Interwebs, and have found conflicting information--some color examples clearly show gray life rings aboard ships while others show orange. I'm inclined to claim the example below was orange due to the different tone of the ring and its mount compared to the LCM or the ship. Does anybody have a better informed opinion, or better yet, some primary evidence?

 

The above is a crop of this picture

[JohnWS]

When I did research for my PT boat build, I found the life ring colour varied like you said.  Colour photos show the rings being grey, grey/blue, white, white & red, & orange.  Some of the photos were colourized, so the colours may not be accurate.  I ended up painting the rings on my PT boat grey, the same colour as the boat's, as this seemed to be colour in most of the photos.

 

Here are links to a few photos off the 'net showing the grey/blue life ring colour.  These appear to show the life rings painted the same colour as their boat.

 

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/08/23/09/437BD64100000578-4815558-image-a-89_1503478513539.jpg

 

https://imgc.artprintimages.com/img/print/boats-and-ships-waiting-in-a-port-at-weymouth-southern-england-june-1944_u-l-ppy11y0.jpg?h=900&w=900

 

https://www.lonesentry.com/panzer/may/pics/wwii-color-photos.jpg

 

Hope this helps.

 

John

 

Edited May 11, 2019 by JohnWS

[dnl42]

Thanks John! As you note, more conflict. I do see in the 1st image above that the grey ring is indeed a darker grey than the boat. That's consistent with the tonal difference between my boat and its life ring. I did some greyscale conversions of color photos, and I observed that orange maps to a lighter color than shown in the photo. While I know that panchromatic film and greyscale mappings aren't identical, they should be somewhat consistent. This again leads me to grey.

 

Having written that, another photo I just found on my disk suggests orange, as shown in this crop. 

 

Last night, I was leaning towards orange. I mixed up a suitable orange and shot it. Looking at it this morning, it looks out of place.