---
title: That Kind of Talk Sinks Ships
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-that-kind-of-talk-sinks-ships-1939/
description: A photograph shows a dockside man in a flat cap telling a barmaid, in a speech balloon, which ship is loading and where it will sail.
section: Collection
---

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3. That Kind of Talk Sinks Ships

[![That Kind of Talk Sinks Ships, 1939 UK poster: A photograph shows a dockside man in a flat cap telling a barmaid, in a speech](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-that-kind-of-talk-sinks-ships-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-that-kind-of-talk-sinks-ships-1939.jpg)

# That Kind of Talk Sinks Ships

A photograph shows a dockside man in a flat cap telling a barmaid, in a speech balloon, which ship is loading and where it will sail. The red headline links careless talk to sunk ships (fear appeal), and the ordinary pub setting and workers present the leak as something any plain person might do (plain folks).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE
STUFF WE LOADED ON THE OLD
ATAHUALPA TODAY. SHE'S SAILING
NEXT TIDE - CAPETOWN THEY SAY

THAT KIND OF TALK
SINKS SHIPS

Never mention sailing dates, cargoes or destinations to anybody.

Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Greycaine Limited, Watford and London. 51. 830
```

[← On the Road to Recovery - Thanks to You Blood Donor](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-thanks-to-you-blood-donor-1939/) [The Airman Depends on the Telephone →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-the-airman-depends-on-the-telephone-1939/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [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)