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
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- United Seamen's Service, in cooperation with War Shipping Administration
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Fundraise
- Themes
- Home front, War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
United Seamen's Service. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1351 (NAID 515005).
Text on the object
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]
