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Sea shanties and maritime music

For without his chanty the seaman could not have worked the under-manned and underfed, and often sty-fed, vessels in which he went up and down the world; he could not have set sail to favoring breeze or furled it from destroying gale. There is nothing like a song to lift any kind of work along; and a chanty was then – and still is, on the few square-rigged wanderers left on the seas – as good as ten men on a rope's end, capstan-bar, or windlass-brake.

William Brown Meloney IV, The Chanty Man Sings, 1926

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

Roll the Cotton Down
Hauling shanty

Come roll the cotton down, my boys
Ch: Roll the cotton down;
Come roll the cotton down, my boys
Ch: O roll the cotton down!

Come hither, all you negro boys,
Come hither, all you negro boys

A dollar a day is a white man's pay,
A dollar a day is a white man's pay

Ten dollars a day is a black man's pay
Ten dollars a day is a black man's pay

The white man's pay is rather high,
The white man's pay is rather high

The black man's pay is rather low,
The black man's pay is rather low

Around Cape Horn we're bound to go,
Around Cape Horn we're bound to go

So stretch it aft and start a song,
So stretch it aft and start a song
The Zubenelgenubi
Forecastle song

Come all you good people and listen unto me
I'll tell you of a tragedy that happened on the sea
On the 18th day of January as the sun went down
The Zubenelgenubi sailed out of Newport Town

She was duly built and fitted, seaworthy, it was said
Her skipper was Steve Goodwin from out of Marblehead
He was able, strong, confident, he'd fished for 20 years
Like all brave souls upon the sea, he had respect and fear

A fisherman's life was the life for me
I made my living out on the sea
Some call me fool, some call me brave
Now I rest in a watery grave

Aside from Captain Goodwin the crew did number three
There was Newport's own Steve Kelly, a fine young man was he;
Steve Haynes and Candace Stewart, oh they made up the crew
They hauled the traps far off the shore where the pleasures they are few

And they headed for Nantucket on a week to 10-day trip
Once out the winds did howl, the barometer did dip
And the winds that lashed about, ail off New England's shore
After 10 days out we heard not one word more

(Chorus)

Winds lashed out fury, on destruction they were bent
While we in our warm houses, we waited for some news
There came no word or message of that boat or of her crew

Finally Goodwin's wife all on the 18th day
No longer could she stand, no longer could delay
She called upon the Coast Guard to search the ocean wide
And North to South and East to West, 'though nothing there was spied

Whatever was the fate of that boat or her crew
Will perhaps never be known to the likes of me or you
But we'll drink now unto them, wherever they may be
And all brave souls who risk their lives all on the ragin' sea

(Chorus)
Pay Me My Money Down
Hauling shanty

Your money, young man, is no object to me.
Ch: Pay me the money down.
Half-a-crown's no great demand.

Ch: Pay me the money down.
All: Money down, money down;
Pay me the money down.
Fischerlied
Fishing song

Ein armer Fischer bin ich zwar, verdien mein Geld stets in Gefahr,
Doch wenn Feinsliebchen am Ufer rught, Dann geht das Fischer noch einmal so gut. Doch wenn Feinsgut.

Und fahren nir zur See hinaus, und werfen uns're Netze aus.
Dann kommen Fischlein gross und klein, ein jedes nill einmal gefangen sein.

Und ist vorbei der Monat Mai, vorbei ist dann die Fischerei,
Dann geht Feinsliebchen zum Traualtar, es lebe hoch das Fischerpaar.
Mainsail Café, 2026 Contact