Thomas Hart Benton's painting Embarkation - Prelude to Death: "In August 1942, the folk painter Thomas Hart Benton watched the first wave of American servicemen board ships at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, headed for North Africa. He used the sketches he made that day as the basis for one of the oversize propaganda murals he created 'to wake up the Middle West to the grimness of our national situation. This painting, 'Embarkation – Prelude to Death', depicts grim soldiers bearing rifles and duffel bags as they head onto a hulking ship."[1]

1. Cohen, Patricia, "Putting a Fresh Spin on the Familiar", New York Times, 26 October 2012. Cohen says it's Brooklyn Navy Yard, and maybe it was, but more likely it was Brooklyn Army Terminal, not far away. In any case, this is (in part) what the shipbuilding was all about.