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Sea shanties and maritime music

To those who know and can feel, there is a smack of salt spray in every line of these rude virile verses. To them once again will come back the creak of the blocks as the falls whine through them, and the dead heavy lurch as the boat jerks upwards... I can hardly think of any words or tunes that appeal more intimately to all the spirit of adventure that life has left in me.

Arthur Conan Doyle, Letter to F. T. Bullen, 1914

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

Bring 'em Down
Hauling shanty

In Liverpool I was born,
Ch: Bring 'em down,
London is me home from home,
Ch: Bring 'em down.

In Liverpool I was bred,
Strong in the back and thick in the head.

Callao gals I do love so,
Waggle their arse with a roll and go.

Liverpool gals I do adore,
Rob yer blind and ask fer more.

When I git home from off the sea,
It's Jinny will ya marry me.

Bring 'em down it is the cry,
The bloody topmast sheave is dry.

Rock and roll her over boys,
Get this damned job over boys.
Samoa Song
Ceremonial

Goodbye, my feleni, o le a ou tea
Ae folau le vaa, o le Alii pule me-le-te,
Nei galo mai A-pi-a, si ota e-le e-le,
Ae maga-tu-a mai [n]ea, le au pa-se-se.

Oh, I ne-ver will forget you, Samoa ele ele galoatu,
Oh I never will forget you, Samoa eleatu

Faa foga foga, mai Samoa uma,
Sai fai atu, o lau faa tusa, pei o le sulu saga,
I totonu o maga, faapea lau pele,
Mai taupou uma.
The Alabama
Hauling shanty

When the Alabama's keel was laid,
Ch: ROLL, Alabama, ROLL,
They laid her keel in Birkenhead,
Ch: ROLL, Alabama, ROLL!

Oh, she was built at Birkenhead,
She was built in the yard of Jonathan Laird.

And down the Mersey she rolled away,
And Britain supplied her with men and guns.

And she sailed away in search of a prize.
And when she came to the port of Cherbourg,

It was there she met the little Kearsarge.
It was there she met the Ke-arsarge.

It was off Cherbourg harbor in April, '65,
That the Alabama went to a timely grave.
Dance T' Th' Daddy

Come here me little Jackie
Now 've smoked me baccy
Have a bit o' crackie
'Till the boat comes in

Dance to ya daddy, sing to ya mammy
Dance to ya daddy, till ya mammy sings
Thou shall hev a fishy
on a little dishy,
Thou shall hev a fishy
when the boat comes in.

Here's thy mother humming,
Like a canny woman;
Yonder is ya father,
Drunk---he cannot stand.

Dance ti' thy daddy, sing ti' thy mammy,
Dance ti' thy daddy, ti' thy mammy sing;
Thou shall hev a fishy on a little dishy,
Thou shall hev a fishy when the boat comes in.

Our Tommy's always fuddled,
He's so fond of ale,
But he's kind to me,
I hope he'll never fail.

Thou shall hev a fishy on a little dishy,
Thou shall hev a fishy when the boat comes in

I like a drop mesel,
When I can get it sly
Though me bonnie bairn
Will lik't well as I

Thou shall hev a fishy on a little dishy,
Thou shall hev a fishy when the boat comes in
Mainsail Café, 2026 Contact