---
title: Safety Rules for Use on Transports
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/safety-rules-for-use-on-transports-folder-1941/
description: 'Folded safety leaflet for troops boarding transports: a lifeboat''s contents, a troop ship with boats and rafts in place.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Safety Rules for Use on Transports

[![Safety Rules for Use on Transports, 1941 US poster: Folded safety leaflet for troops boarding transports](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/safety-rules-for-use-on-transports-folder-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/safety-rules-for-use-on-transports-folder-1941.jpg)

# Safety Rules for Use on Transports

Folded safety leaflet for troops boarding transports: a lifeboat's contents, a troop ship with boats and rafts in place, an eight-point emergency list and the line 'Your Safety Depends on You!'. The fear-appeal is mild: it states that boarding means entering a combat area subject to attack, then offers rules as the remedy.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

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

```
[upside down on cover panel:] SAFETY RULES FOR USE ON TRANSPORTS
this may save your life
KNOW THESE RULES AND INSTRUCTIONS!
SOME OF THE CONTENTS OF A LIFE BOAT.
[imprint:] GPO-524284
General:
FIND YOUR "ABANDON SHIP" STATION IMMEDIATELY AFTER GOING ABOARD SHIP. LEARN THE POSITION OF YOUR STATION AND ALL POSSIBLE WAYS OF REACHING IT.
PAY ATTENTION AT SHIP'S DRILLS. KNOW THE EMERGENCY SIGNAL.
ALWAYS DRESS WARMLY. SLEEP IN YOUR CLOTHES.
AT ALL TIMES, DAY OR NIGHT, KEEP YOUR LIFE PRESERVER AND A FULL CANTEEN OF WATER WITH YOU.
In case of an emergency:
1. Keep your head. Keep quiet. Obey all orders at once.
2. Go quietly and quickly to your "abandon ship" station. Wait for orders.
3. Don't jump overboard. Death may result from the turning propellers.
4. Use ladders, nets and ropes when leaving the ship.
5. Wait for the order, "every man for himself", before acting on your own, even in an extreme emergency.
6. Swim clear of the ship's side immediately.
7. Sit still in a life boat or on a life raft.
8. Set a good example. Your actions influence others. Keep cool, no matter what is happening.
A troop ship, with life boats and life rafts in place.
YOUR SAFETY DEPENDS ON YOU!
It will probably never be necessary for you to abandon ship. Nevertheless, when you board a transport, you enter a combat area subject to attack at any moment, day or night. The ship is provided with adequate facilities for an emergency, but you must know when, how, and under whose direction to make use of them. In case of a disaster at sea, your survival will depend to a great extent on you.
Should you have to abandon ship, the fact that you know certain things about the vessel on which you are traveling, and are prepared to act in accordance with the following instructions will go far to insure your safety.
```

[← Safe work today - more work tomorrow](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/safe-work-today-more-work-tomorrow-ordnance-1941/) [Salvage for Victory and Be Proud! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/salvage-for-victory-and-be-proud-putnam-county-1941/)

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- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)