More than 5500 merchant seamen lost in action against the enemy is a sheet for National Maritime Day, May 22, 1944, with no issuer or printer named. A charcoal-style drawing shows a ship exploding, a lifeboat of survivors and a helmeted seaman, and the text asks Americans for an answer (NAID 515022).
An explosion, a lifeboat and a number
The drawing is done in a charcoal style. A ship explodes at sea, survivors sit in a lifeboat, and a merchant seaman in a helmet stands in the foreground. A label set at a tilt carries the casualty figure. The rest of the text is a call to the public and the name of the day.
MORE THAN 5500
Merchant Seamen Lost in
Action Against the Enemy!
Fellow Americans—
Give Them Your
Answer!
NATIONAL MARITIME DAY
MAY 22, 1944
An observance with no name on it
The sheet does not print an issuing agency or a printer. The archive describes it as a National Maritime Day observance sheet and sets the issuer type to "Mixed". The National Archives holds it in Record Group 44 with the World War II posters. FRAME gives the purpose as "Commemorate" and the audience as "Domestic public".
The figure of more than 5,500 is the sheet's own. Neither the sheet nor the record gives a source for it.
An answer to what?
The archive's observation is that the request is never spelled out. "Give Them Your Answer!" could mean buy a bond, take a job in a shipyard, sign on with a crew, or simply remember. On the sheet, the losses are the argument and the action is left open.
FRAME tags fear appeal and calls it faint, which is fair. The picture shows a loss and accuses no one at home. The text says the seamen were "Lost in Action Against the Enemy", and a day set aside to count them is a legitimate thing for a country to keep. The sheet honors them without an enemy face or a slur.
The same observance appears on this site three years later in For Trade, Travel, Defense, a National Maritime Day poster for 22 May 1947 that shows loading at a pier instead of an explosion at sea. The Roosevelt administration essay describes the wartime information offices.
Sources
- FRAME object record, More than 5500 merchant seamen lost in action against the enemy! Fellow Americans, give them your answer, 1944. National Maritime Day observance; issuer not printed. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-1368, NAID 515022, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026.
