A damaged German U-boat breaks the surface at a sharp angle, and the men on its foredeck have their arms in the air.
Leon Alaric Shafer (1866 to 1940) designed the lithograph for the Victory Liberty Loan of 1919, the fifth and final bond drive run by the US Treasury. W.F. Powers Co. Litho of New York published it and Niagara Litho Co. of Buffalo printed it. It appeared after the armistice, in the spring of 1919.
Copies are held by the Library of Congress, the Imperial War Museum (Art.IWM PST 0298) and the US Naval History and Heritage Command. Shafer worked from New Rochelle, New York, and his maritime and military illustrations appeared in Scribner's, Harper's and Collier's.
On the poster
A US Navy destroyer fills the middle ground to the right, its hull in flat blocks of burnt orange and steel blue, twin funnels trailing dark smoke. At the far left the blunt bow of a civilian ocean liner moves on through the grey-green sea. The U-boat lists at an angle, with white foam churning around it. A lower band carries the text in bold slab-serif capitals.
About this print
A digitally restored reproduction, printed on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art paper with pigment inks.
