In 2007 I found in the Israel State Archives in Jerusalem correspondence between the Director of the Shipping Department in the Ministry of Transport and the Postmaster General seeking approval for a banner for post office ships. Four years later, in 1954, the banner was approved by a ministerial committee.

The Shipping Department announced that it chose the design by the Shamir Brothers. I took a copy of the papers and passed them to the Shenkar Institute. The design itself was not attached to the letters.

I started searching for the banner. After several attempts, I managed to talk with the Treasurer of the Maritime Museum in Haifa. He said they had no sample of the banner at the museum and suggested that I contact the Zim archives or a couple of “old” sea captains. I contacted captain Yarkoni. While on the phone he flipped through the book "Flags" by Zeev Hayam (Sea Wolf) and found the banner. He explained that ships carrying mail would seek priority at the entrance to the harbour. The practice was that the a ship carrying mail would raise its Mail banner on entrance to its destination port, be recognised as such and be given priority. Captain Yarkoni scanned the Shamir banner and emailed it to me and I forwarded it to Shenkar.

Peshi After, who has a stall in the antique market in Dizengoff Centre, bought for me two booklets on Israel Maritime written by Dr. J. Zebba in 1941. Their cover was designed by Shamir Brothers.

In February 2010, I went through old issues of "Davar" from World War II as part of my project on humour in advertising. In the paper of 10/5/1940 I found an article on "The exhibition of Shamir Brothers' graphic art”. This article has been in my house for 17 years in an album my father left me. This time I looked through it carefully and marked all the Shamir works mentioned in the article. Two related to the sea. The first - a symbol of the force (Israel Maritime) - is on the back cover of Zebba's book, but I was not aware beore that the symbol was designed by Shamir. The second – A booklet "The Jews and the sea". I approached the library of the Maritime Museum in Haifa. Their librarian informed me that they did not have such a booklet and referred me to the library of the University of Haifa. The answer I got on the Internet: Your identification number is not in our database. I contacted “Ittamar Books” and they said that they would look for it. I turned to the National Books Centre and they found the booklet: "The Jews and the Sea" by Samuel Tolkowsky was published by the Hebrew Naval League (“Liga Yamit Ivrit”). At my request they sent me a scan of the cover. According to Wikipedia, the League existed for one year only in 1937.

Yoram Shamir  2010