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Sea shanties and maritime music

A chanty is a seaman's work song, and the Chanty Man is its leader – the acknowledged foresinger, forehand of the working crew. Black and blue from the thuggery of Shanghai Brown's boarding-house – or Patch Eye Curtin's, or Katie Wilson's; split-lipped, broken-nosed, ear-slit, scalp-torn; cheated and shown by cozen and crimp; sick of soul and body; his chief earthly possessions a port, pannikin, and spoon, and a pair of leaky sea-boots...

And still he could sing! Blessed was the ship that could boast one good man of his tribe. Thrice blessed she that could boast one in each watch.

William Brown Meloney IV, Everybody's Magazine, 1915

This Day in History (February 29, 1908)

This Day in History (January 8, 1806)

The death of Lord Nelson was a national tragedy like no other for England. "From Greenwich to Whitehall Stairs, on the 8th of January, 1806, in one of the greatest Aquatic Processions that ever was beheld on the River Thames" drifted the royal shallop (barge). The event is referenced in the modern lament, Carrying Nelson Home. Nelson is mentioned in nearly a dozen other songs.

Try a random shanty sampling

Ten Stone
Heaving shanty

I nebber seen de like sence I ben bawn!
Ch: Way-ay-ay-ay
Negro on de ice an a hoe-in up corn
Ch: Way-ay-ay-ay
Ten stone! ten stone, ten stone de win' am ob-er!
Jenny git along,
Jenny blow de horn,
As we go marchin' ober!
Slav Ho!
Heaving shanty

To the Spanish Main we are bound away,
Ch: Slav Ho!
To the Spanish Main we are bound away,
Ch: Slav Ho!
We're sailing away in the early day,
Where the swift bonitos and dolphins play!
Ch: Slav Ho! Slavita, vraimen-ti-go slee-ga. Slav Ho!
He-back, She-back
Heaving shanty

He-back, she-back, daddy shot a bear,
Shot him in the back, and he never turned a hair,
I'm just from the railroad, too-rer-loo,
O the old moke picking on the ban-jo

Ch: Hoo-roo! What's the matter now?
I'm just from the railroad, too-rer-loo
I'm just from the railroad, too-rer-loo
O the old moke picking on the ban-jo!
Whup Jamboree
Hauling shanty

The pilot he looks out ahead,
O a hand in the chains
O a heaving of the lead!
The Union Jack at our masthead,
O I wonder if my clothes are out of pawn!

Ch: O Jamboree, O Jamboree
O its get away you black man,
Don't you come a nigh me!
O Jamboree, O Jamboree!
O I wonder if my clothes are out of pawn!

O it's now we're past o' the Lizard lights,
The Start, boys, next we'll heave in sight;
We'll soon be abreast of the Isle of Wight;
O I wonder if my clothes are out o' pawn.

O when we get to the Blackwall docks,
The pretty young girls come down in flocks;
Some in their petticoats, some in frocks;
O I wonder if my clothes are out o' pawn.

There were other verses but I do not find them in my records
Mainsail Café, 2026 Contact