---
title: 'The Ships Are Coming: Stick to Your Job, Be on the Job for Victory'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-ships-are-coming-on-the-job-for-victory-1918/
description: A painting of dazzle-camouflaged steamships sits above a block of plain text addressed to shipyard and factory workers.
section: Collection
---

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3. The Ships Are Coming: Stick to Your Job, Be on the Job for Victory

[![The Ships Are Coming: Stick to Your Job, Be on the Job for Victory, 1918 US poster: A painting of dazzle-camouflaged](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/the-ships-are-coming-on-the-job-for-victory-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/the-ships-are-coming-on-the-job-for-victory-1918.jpg)

# The Ships Are Coming: Stick to Your Job, Be on the Job for Victory

A painting of dazzle-camouflaged steamships sits above a block of plain text addressed to shipyard and factory workers, asking for a full day's work every day. The tell of transfer is the pairing of the workers' attendance with the soldiers' sacrifice ('the boys in the trenches are fighting for you'), so that staying at one's job is framed as service at the front.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/)

## Text on the object

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

```
[artist's signature at upper right of the picture: illegible]
THOMSEN-ELLIS CO. BALTIMORE NEW YORK

The Ships Are Coming

YOU can help send this good news to our
boys "Over There" by giving your employer
a full day's work every day.

You are doing Government War Work.
The product made here is urgently needed
for American ships.

By jumping from place to place you are
hindering their rapid completion.

Stick to your job

The boys in the trenches are fighting for you.
Help them to victory by working faithfully
for them. Let all be

On the Job for Victory

UNITED STATES SHIPPING BOARD EMERGENCY FLEET CORPORATION
ISSUED BY PUBLICATIONS SECTION, EMERGENCY FLEET CORPORATION, PHILADELPHIA
```

[← The President Says: Hunger Does Not Breed Reform; It Breeds Madness (America's Food Pledge, 20 Million Tons)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-president-says-hunger-does-not-breed-reform-1918/) [They Are Giving All. Will You Send Them Wheat? →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/they-are-giving-all-will-you-send-them-wheat-1918/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [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)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [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.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)