Harold Price’s graphic illustrates the many ways that seamen were bilked and bribes were demanded for jobs in the years before the founding of the National Maritime Union. The image accompanies text by NMU president Joseph Curran in the booklet “Know the Score,” printed by the NMU in 1945. Much of Price’s life in the years after he completed this work is a mystery, but we do know he shipped out as a merchant seaman from 1935–1945.

See more of Price’s drawings in Why Unions? Art From the National Maritime Union.