---
title: '"The greatest insurance of all!!" (Liberty ship John Merrick)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/us-owi-alston-greatest-insurance-of-all-1943/
description: A pencil drawing shows the bow of a Liberty ship named 'John Merrick' as a crate marked 'Supplies for our fighting men' is lifted aboard.
section: Collection
---

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3. "The greatest insurance of all!!" (Liberty ship John Merrick)

[!["The greatest insurance of all!!", 1943 US cartoon: A pencil drawing shows the bow of a Liberty ship named 'John Merrick'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/us-owi-alston-greatest-insurance-of-all-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/us-owi-alston-greatest-insurance-of-all-1943.jpg)

# "The greatest insurance of all!!" (Liberty ship John Merrick)

A pencil drawing shows the bow of a Liberty ship named 'John Merrick' as a crate marked 'Supplies for our fighting men' is lifted aboard. A news item names the ship for a Black insurance executive; the tell is transfer, linking the honoree's insurance career to the war supply effort through the caption pun.

## Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
"MARITIME COMMISSION NAMES A LIBERTY SHIP FOR JOHN MERRICK, PIONEER NEGRO INSURANCE EXECUTIVE"..... NEWS ITEM

JOHN MERRICK

SUPPLIES FOR OUR FIGHTING MEN

"THE GREATEST INSURANCE OF ALL!!"

alston OWI
```

[← "Get into your fighting clothes - we're going after the others" (undated, c. 1942-1945, OWI)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/us-owi-alston-get-into-your-fighting-clothes-1943/) [Hilyard Robinson - Architect, Community Planner →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/us-owi-alston-hilyard-robinson-architect-1943/)

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- [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)
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- [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)