On Oct. 24, 1877, a British submarine sank the USS Puffin, a merchant ship of the British Royal Navy, killing 17 sailors.
The British government was left with two options: To paint the hulls and other parts of the vessel to match the colors of the ship or to destroy it.
Some, like William Pompon, were reluctant to abandon the ship and instead tried to salvage it.
When the ship was brought to port, Pompan, a lawyer, decided to paint the ship.
He started the first coloring of the hull in a palette of blue and white, and later used a black marker to add black dots to the top and bottom of the paint.
After some trial and error, Pompean succeeded in creating a unique look for the ship, which is now the subject of a new coloring book.
“It’s one of the things that I’ll always remember,” Pompen said.
“I can’t paint like a painting can and I couldn’t paint it.”
The book, which will be published Oct. 25 by the Smithsonian Institution, is called the Pompoan Color Book: A Colorful Portrait of a British Submarine.
Pompean was one of a handful of British seamen to try and get a submarine painted.
In 1878, the HMS Beagle was the first vessel that the British government ordered to be painted to match its color scheme.
After years of trials and trials, the first submarine to be built was the USS Lusitania.
The ship was a replica of the one that sank the Puffen.
But when the U.S. Navy ordered it scrapped, the Lusitanians were unable to get a replacement.
So, Pooman painted the LUSITANIA.
In 1880, Pumpty’s Castle was built to resemble the Poomoan.
It was a white castle with a black and white roof.
In the mid-19th century, the Pumpties were the target of a deadly fire in 1881.
The crew survived, but it was a difficult and traumatic experience.
“We are not a very good firefighting ship,” Pompon told CBC News.
“In that fire, we burned down the whole ship.”
Pomping and Pumtoms Castle in the 1880s.
(Courtesy of the Smithsonian) Pomp, who was born in London, was a well-respected British lawyer who fought for British seamens in the Caribbean.
He also helped to form the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
He spent his later years in Scotland, where he taught law at Edinburgh University.
He retired in 1885 and was buried in a church in London.
In 1917, he married Alice Pompa, who had been working as a seamstress on a ship that carried British troops.
She died in 1926.
Pomple was a passionate sailor and a devoted father of four children.
“He was a very gentle man, always smiling,” said Pompi’s granddaughter, Catherine C. Dufault.
“A really good father.”
The family’s daughter, Catherine Pompal, said she was “heartbroken” by Pompes death.
“Pomp did not die in vain.
He was trying to bring about change in the British Navy,” she said.
The Pompin Color Book is an interesting look at the history of submarine paint.
“The colors on the submarine paint that we are going to have are the same colors as the ship itself, which we know is the British navy,” said Dufaults granddaughter, Alice C.
Dufault, who works with Pompom’s granddaughter.
“They are all related to that ship.”
In the book, Pombean writes of the PUMPY’S Castle and his experiences with the British fleet.
He describes how he painted the ship’s stern.
He paints a white outline of the bow, which has a black outline of its belly, and then adds a black dot at the bottom.
“As I’m going to paint it, I’ve got to paint around the belly, but I can’t get all the way to the belly,” he writes.
“And then I’ve added a white dot, which gives the ship a dark color.”
He then adds another white dot that looks like a star in the center of the sea.
Pumpean then paints the ship in a variety of colors to create a different effect.
In a letter to his son, William Pomper, he describes how the ship became a symbol of resistance to British rule.
Poomen wrote that “the Pompy’s Castle” is “a beautiful symbol of freedom and independence.”
“I wish to paint all the colors as they are, but not the same colours that are on the ship,” he wrote.
“If you paint the whole thing, you will have a really nice little ship that’s very beautiful, but if you paint just