Ships in WWII used to use techniques like this as well. I saw a great exhibit on camouflage at the Imperial War Museum that featured quite a few examples of this:
This camouflage was effective not at hiding the ship, but denying the U-Boat captains the ability to see in which direction it's moving to properly launch torpedoes. The patterned painting makes it harder to find where the bow is pointing to.
That is probably why they included the hyperlink.