---
title: Merchant Seamen Deliver What It Takes to Blast the Axis!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/merchant-seamen-deliver-1943/
description: 'Fundraising poster for the United Seamen''s Service: a bare-chested merchant seaman with a bandaged head and a torn shirt grips a ship''s wheel.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Merchant Seamen Deliver What It Takes to Blast the Axis!

[![Merchant Seamen Deliver What It Takes to Blast the Axis!, 1943 US poster: Fundraising poster for the United Seamen's Service](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/merchant-seamen-deliver-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/merchant-seamen-deliver-1943.jpg)

# Merchant Seamen Deliver What It Takes to Blast the Axis!

Fundraising poster for the United Seamen's Service: a bare-chested merchant seaman with a bandaged head and a torn shirt grips a ship's wheel, with ships behind him. The slogan promises that seamen 'deliver what it takes to blast the Axis'. The technique is transfer: the wounded sailor's endurance is attached to the National War Fund appeal.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
MERCHANT SEAMEN
Deliver
WHAT IT TAKES TO
BLAST THE AXIS!
[signature: illegible]
UNITED SEAMEN'S SERVICE
in cooperation with WAR SHIPPING ADMINISTRATION
SERVES OUR FIGHTERS IN DUNGAREES
WHEREVER UNITED STATES SHIPS CARRY
GOODS TO ASSURE VICTORY
USS is a participant in the NATIONAL WAR FUND
[imprint: illegible]
```

[← Men to fight the Axis, men to build: planes, tanks, ships, guns](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/men-to-fight-the-axis-men-to-build-1943/) [A message for you... from 1953 →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/message-for-you-from-1953-1943/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)