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

The Girls Around Cape Horn
Forecastle song

The gallant frigate, Amphitrite, she lay in Plymouth Sound,
Blue Peter at the foremast head for we were outward bound;
We was waiting there for orders to send us far from home;
Our orders they come for Rio, and thence around Cape Horn.

When we arrived in Rio we prepared for heavy gales;
We bent on all the rigging, me boys, bent on all new sails.
From ship to ship they cheered us as we did sail along,
And they wished us pleasant weather in the rounding of Cape Horn.

In beating off Magellan Strait it blew exceeding hard;
Whilst shortening sail two gallant tars they fell from the topsail yard.
By angry seas the ropes we threw from their poor hands was torn
We were forced to leave them to the sharks that prowl around Cape Horn.

Now when we got round the Horn, my boys, we had some glorious days
And very soon our killick dropped in Valparaiso Bay.
Them pretty girls came down in flocks; I solemnly declare
That they are far before the Plymouth girls with their long and curling hair.

Because they love a jolly sailor when he spends his money free,
They'll laugh, they sing, they merry, merry be, they enjoy a jovial spree.
And when your money it is all gone they won't on you impose,
They are not like them Plymouth girls that'll pawn and sell your clothes.

So it's farewell to Valparaiso and farewell for a while,
Likewise to all them pretty Spanish girls all along the coast of Chile;
If ever l live to be paid off l'll sit and I'll sing this song:
"God bless them pretty Spanish girls we left around Cape Horn."