Invest In The Victory Liberty Loan

This dramatic 1918-1919 poster by artist L.A. Shafer (Leon Alaric Shafer) for the Victory Liberty Loan depicts an American submarine, destroyer, and cargo ship battling German U-boats in roiling seas, with the slogan "They Kept the Sea Lanes Open" transforming naval warfare into moral narrative justifying continued financial sacrifice. Published by W.F. Powers Co. Litho. of New York for the fifth and final Liberty Loan campaign, the poster symbolizes the Navy's critical efforts in securing oceanic transportation routes that allowed American troops and supplies to reach European battlefields despite Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare. German U-boats terrorized Allied convoys, sinking merchant vessels faster than they could be replaced and bringing Britain to the brink of starvation before convoy systems and American naval intervention turned the tide.

The Victory Liberty Loan, issued after the November 1918 Armistice, served to consolidate war debt and finance occupation costs rather than ongoing combat operations. The poster's emphasis on naval heroism reflects how unrestricted submarine warfare—which targeted civilian merchant ships without warning—helped bring the United States into the war by violating neutral shipping rights and claiming American lives, most famously in the 1915 Lusitania sinking. The dramatic composition conveys the perpetual danger faced by sailors who maintained supply lines despite knowing each voyage might end in torpedo attack and death by drowning or exposure. This poster exemplifies how wartime propaganda extended beyond combat's conclusion, as governments needed to sustain civilian willingness to purchase bonds even after victory made continued sacrifice seem less urgent. The reference to keeping sea lanes open reminded Americans that naval supremacy remained essential for projecting power globally and that financial support for the Navy would be required well beyond the immediate war's end.