Mark, you may be right that the paint was stored as a thick paste. If so, the pigment would have been ground with oil as the medium, and would have needed mixing with more linseed oil as well as turpentine before use.
The following is from the 1869 Pocket book of useful formulæ & memoranda for carpenters, Royal navy, but may still be informative (N.B. ignore most of the quantities because I'm afraid this is full of OCR errors):
Quote:
RULES FOR THE NEW ESTABLISHMENT OF PAINT MATERIALS, AS ADOPTED IN THE NAVY IN 1869.
The basis upon which tho calculations are made for the quantity of Paint materials to be supplied to H.M. Ships, is as follows:—
1st.—That the painted surface of a Ship, outside and inside, be calculated under the following heads,—
Weather-work, outside.
Weather-work, inside.
Main Deck and Cabins.
Lower Deck and Cabins.
Below Lower Deck.
2nd.—That all the weather-work bo painted one coat every four months, and the inboard work one coat every twelve months.
N.B.—This basis is considered to give enough paint for the Boats, (j mi.;, &•., i,c.
3rd.—That a pound of stiff white paint, and a pound of stiff black paint, plus the necessary thinnings, as given in the "Table of Proportions for Mixing Paint," will cover on an average, the white about 5J square yards, and the black about 8 square yards.
4th.—That in order to supply sufficient Linseed Oil, Turpentine, &c., for paint and other purposes, the following proportions are allowed,—
For every 112 pounds of black paint, 3 1/4 galls. of raw Linseed Oil.
For every 112 pounds of black paint, 2 3/4 galls. of boiled Linseed Oil.
For every 112 pounds of white, yellow and red paint, 3 galls. of raw Linseed Oil.
For every 112 pounds of white, yellow and rod paint, If galls. of Spirits of Turpentine.'
For every 112 pounds of cither of the above paints, 6 Ibs. of Dryers.
In order to test what surface a pound of paint would cover, when used by Ship's painters, the following results were obtained by experiments on a ship :—
On the "waist netting" inboard, which was smooth. 1 lb. of white paint, plus the necessary thinnings and dryers, covered about 5£ square yards: but the same quantity, put on the white streak outside, only covered about 4 square yards. One pound of yollow paint, mixed in the proportion of 3 of yellow to 4 of white, plus the necessary thinnings and dryers, covered about the same surface as the white on tho rough and the smooth surfaces; and the yellow for masts, mixed in the same proportion, with the addition of a small quantity of Venetian red, was found to cover about the samo surface as the white.
Tho weight of black paint, when mixed for use, increases about J; and that of white, yellow, &c, about ith of their weight previous to being mixed; that is, 1 lb. of black paint becomes 1£ lbs., and lib. of white, &c., bocomes li lbs.
N.B.—Litharge should always be ground in oil, and on no account should it be put in paint in a dry state; it also should not be mixed with paint until it is about to bo used.
For an accurate rendition and additional tables, see here:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LlUD ... utput=html