edit:

Oops no I was totally wrong, I was thinking of Dazzle camo the whole time. Whoops

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage

Funny thing is, as far as I understand, splinter camo doesn't really work. Apparently the idea is that splinter on WWI ships made it hard for early sub-marines to determine their range and heading. That made it harder to aim a torpedo. In practice it was apparently a mixed bag and no one is sure if it worked, but apparently ships crews got really in to painting wild splinter patterns and it became a real morale booster during the war.