Why Ships Are Painted Red Below the Waterline — The Full Story
Why are ships painted red below the waterline? The answer is more fascinating than you'd expect — it involves a worm that sank Christopher Columbus's ships, a chemical arms race that lasted 300 years, and a scandal that wiped out an entire fishing industry in France.
In this video, we cover the complete story: from the Teredo navalis shipworm that terrorized wooden navies for centuries, to the invention of antifouling paint in the 1850s, to the tributyltin scandal that led to a global ban, to the cutting-edge materials science that may replace red paint entirely in the next decade.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 — The Question: Why Red?
03:00 — The Enemy: Biofouling and the Shipworm
08:00 — The Solution: Copper, Chemistry and the Color Red
14:00 — The Scandal: Tributyltin and the French Oyster Industry
19:00 — The Future: What Comes After Red Paint?
#ships #maritime #engineering #history #science #antifouling #navy #cargo #ocean #shipbuilding