---
title: Read and heed! Boom water sports by being careful
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/read-and-heed-boom-water-sports-1941/
description: 'Text-only Red Cross water-safety sheet under a red cross emblem: eleven numbered-style rules for bathers, swimmers, campers and canoeists.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Read and heed! Boom water sports by being careful

[![Read and heed! Boom water sports by being careful, 1941 US poster: Text-only Red Cross water-safety sheet under a red cross](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/read-and-heed-boom-water-sports-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/read-and-heed-boom-water-sports-1941.jpg)

# Read and heed! Boom water sports by being careful

Text-only Red Cross water-safety sheet under a red cross emblem: eleven numbered-style rules for bathers, swimmers, campers and canoeists. The technique is faint here; it is a plain list of safety advice that presents only the rules and omits any counter-case.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Text on the object

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

```
Bathers
Swimmers
Campers
Canoeists
READ AND HEED!
When enjoying health-giving water sports, always observe a code of safe conduct.
Avoid long swims after a season of inactivity; train gradually.
Take a boat along for distance swimming.
Every community needs a safe swimming place provided with simple equipment, where regulations can be enforced.
Regular hours for bathing under competent supervision should be observed.
Swimming is the first water sport to learn; it makes the others safe.
After eating, wait at least two hours before swimming to avoid dangerous stomach cramps.
Failure to look before diving causes many deaths. Be sure the water is at least eight feet deep, and free from hidden stumps and rocks.
Every swimmer needs a water buddy to help him, or give the alarm in case of accident. Don't swim alone.
The prone pressure method is a most effective means of reviving a drowning person. Do not wait for a doctor or machine---go to work at once.
You can help the cause of water safety by observing sane regulations and teaching them to others.
Boom Water Sports by Being Careful
Ask Your Local Red Cross Chapter About Water Safety, Rescue and Resuscitation Methods
THE AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS
[imprint: POSTER 1006]
```

[← Railroads are ready](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/railroads-are-ready-association-of-american-railroads-1941/) [Read 'em and weep! Don't gamble with your future! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/read-em-and-weep-carelessness-1941/)

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- [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)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [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.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.