Maneuvering Room

Lighthearted cartoons focused on situational irony, such as  this sailor’s submission for a contest depicting a sailor asking for salt for his fish while adrift at sea.

The most common joke among these illustrations is enlisted men trying to put in requests for transfers despite being on a small deserted island.

Sailors’ drawings also expressed the dangers of their service. These types of cartoons focused on sailors becoming shipwrecked and usually made light of the dangerous and potently deadly event of the sailor’s vessel sinking by showing how the Navy would continue to function despite being stranded.

However, even then, as a submariner on the Becuna recalled, the crew often stored food in the escape hatches because of a lack of space, so even if needed, he admitted “there was no escape.^"

Thus, these cartoons serve as an escape from the realization that if something went wrong beneath the sea that it was likely a death sentence for those on board.