Terror of life at sea: Incredible power of the USS Mississippi and tragedy on HMS Barham during the Second World War are brought to life in color (24 Pics)

The images show the danger and discomfort of fighting at sea as well as the power of the fighting ships 

Black and white photographs were painstakingly colorised by design engineer Paul Reynolds from the UK

They depict naval warfare from the Pacific, including Pearl Harbor, to the Arctic Convoys and the Korean War

USS Missisippi unleashing its awesome firepower in the South Pacific. The ship was launched in 1917 and remained in service until 1956

Aircraft carrier USS Franklin after being attacked by Japanese aircraft during World War II, March 19, 1945. She was badly damaged with the loss of over 800 crew but stayed afloat becoming the most heavily damaged United States carrier to survive the war

The magazine of British battleship HMS Barham exploding after being hit by torpedoes from at German U-boat in the Mediterranean in 1941

Smoke billowing from battleship USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbour after the US Pacific fleet came under surprise attack by the Japanese

An explosion during the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour, an event that led to the United States entering WWII

Sailors of the USS Mason commissioned at Boston Navy Yard on 20 March 1944 proudly look over their ship which was the first to have predominately African-American crew.

A funeral taking place on a United States Coast Guard vessel at sea during the Second World War 

A bomber banks away after dropping its load on a Japanese submarine chaser off Kavieng

HMS Belfast is bound in ice while serving on an Arctic Convoy delivering vital supplies to the Soviet Union 1943

The crew of the cruiser HMS Sheffield facing a huge wave also while serving as an escort for the Arctic Convoys 

US Army troops examine a one-man submarine that washed up on Anzio beachhead in Italy during World War II 

The United States Coast Guard Cutter Spencer dropping depth charges.  At the outbreak of WWII, coast guard vessels served under US Navy command 

A U.S. Navy Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat fighter makes condensation rings as it awaits the take-off flag aboard USS Yorktown in November 1943

US army soldiers cross the Rhine at Saint Goar, in March 1945

The 17th Regimental Combat Team Lands on Carlos Island, in the Pacific, in January 1944

Sailors with heads clipped in bizarre designs during Neptune party aboard the USS Saratoga February 1944 to mark the ship cross the Equator 

The crew of fire 40mm guns firing aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Hornet in February 1945, as the planes of Task Force 58 were raiding Tokyo

Coast Guardsmen from the cutter USCGC Spencer picking up survivors from the U-Boat U-175

The submarine is pictured just before it sank 

The unusual French submarine 'Surcouf', which in its day was the largest of its kind. The boat was lost during in February, possibly after a night time collision with an American freighter 

German battleship Bismark as seen from her sister ship Prinz Eugen in May 1941. She was sunk by British warplanes and ships that year

The German submarine UC-61 after being beached. The boat was commissioned in 1939 and was scuttled at the end of the war

Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching Omaha Beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944

An officer on the battleship USS South Dakota, which in active service from 1942 until 1947