Ships depend on steel. Don't let fire sabotage your efforts!
Fire-prevention sheet from Bethlehem Steel: a destroyer numbered 400 on the stocks in a shipyard, with 'SHIPS DEPEND ON steel' above and 'Don't let fire sabotage your efforts!' below. The ship stands for the work at stake; the warning uses 'sabotage' for accidental fire, a mild fear-appeal that the technique is faint on.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Bethlehem Steel Company
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Home front, Labor, Security and surveillance
- 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)
Bethlehem Steel Company. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1734 (NAID 515405).
Text on the object
SHIPS DEPEND ON steel 400 Don't let fire sabotage your efforts! (c) BETHLEHEM STEEL COMPANY
