Content note: A ship sinking after a submarine attack and survivors being rescued, with the period term 'Negro' in the quoted headlines. This object is shown as it was published. Why
"Carry on!!" (S.S. Robert L. Vann rescue)
A pencil cartoon shows a sinking ship at left, the bow of a ship marked 'Robert L. Vann' at centre, and survivors in a lifeboat climbing a ladder up the side of a rescuing vessel at right. Two news headlines at upper left report a Liberty ship named for a Black American sunk by an Axis submarine with its crew rescued. The tell is a slogan, 'Carry on', a virtue-style exhortation attached to a reported event.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of War Information (cartoon artwork; artist Charles Alston)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- War and the military, Race and ethnicity, Home front
- 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, RG 208, Artworks and Mockups for Cartoons (NAID 535594), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Office of War Information. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 208, 208-COM-98 (NAID 535639).
Text on the object
News Headlines~ "ONE OF THE FOUR LIBERTY SHIPS NAMED FOR OUTSTANDING NEGRO AMERICANS SUNK BY AXIS SUBMARINE...CREW RESCUED." "S.S. ROBERT L. VANN, FIFTH IN THE SERIES OF LIBERTY SHIPS NAMED FOR FAMOUS NEGRO AMERICANS, LAUNCHED AT SOUTH PORTLAND, MAINE." ROBERT L. VANN "CARRY ON!!" Alston OWI
