Sea Shanties & Maritime Music

An encyclopedic reference of 434 sea shanties and maritime songs, with full lyrics, history, and playable melodies.

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September 3, 1884 marks the sinking of the John Bigler, an otherwise unremarkable schooner out of Detroit (or possibly Chicago) memorialized in song. The slow-moving timber drogher was sailed, and sometimes pulled, through the Great Lakes canals, averaging some 4 miles an hour. The ship was lost with $3,500 worth of stone in the middle of Lake Superior. A clipping from the Toronto Telegram, 3 Oct 1942, provides more detail about the ship, the times, and the song.

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[The chanty] is not recreation, it is an essential part of the work on ship-board, it mastheads the topsail yards when making sail, it starts and weighs the anchor, it brings down the main-tack with a will, it loads and unloads the cargo, it keeps the pumps a-going; in fact, it does all the work where unison and strength are required. I have heard many an old salt say that a good chanty was worth an extra hand.
Laura Alexandrine Smith, The Music of the Waters, 1888