It is still referred to as "Rig for Red" in 688 submarine control rooms and standard procedure for PD preparations at night and/or shallow water operations requiring the scopes up continously. It is done by the Messenger by order of the Chief of the Watch. It is not required if no scopes are up or the ship is not surfacing.
It is a night vision aid or atleast that is what is taught in the Periscope portion of the ESM training in Groton; although ...
... there are various areas of the boat with colored light capabilities: ex. the bridge trunk has red as well as all compartments leading into the control room, and the lighting in radio above the ESM interface panel may be rigged blue [though my XO found it hard to read black ink messages on paper bathed in blue and would frequently growl and flip on the bright whites upon entering.]
It was/and i suppose still is part of the messenger's job to rig the forward passageway/control room for sunset and sunrise ... which simply meant turning on/off the lights to the appropriate level depending on what depth the boat was at and what time of day.
As far as the Unterseeboots were concerned, taking down all unecessary lights while submerged was part of the procedure for rigging the boat for silent running, and/or deep submergence, or battlestations -- the theory being the less equipment running the better. It conserves power, makes less noise, and reduces chance of fire when taking damage. SUBs today will "power down unnecessary equipment" and "secure all unecessary evolutions".
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