What are Sea Shanties?

Long before the arrival of Radio, Television, and other technological marvels as a medium of entertainment, those folk songs and other traditional art forms kept us delighted.

Traditional art forms developed according to local cultures. These songs and stories were mainly practised within specific communities with something ordinary, such as ethnicity, region, religion, or occupation.

In particular, a large number of such folk songs were created as a means of entertainment during work hours.

These songs, commonly known as work songs, were used to coordinate people working together and improve efficiency.

What Is a Sea Shanty?

Sailors who lived before the era of digital entertainment also developed work songs which helped them to work smoothly abroad the vessels throughout the months-long journeys.

Sea Shanties are similar work songs created and sung by sailors on the square-rigged ships of the Age of Sail, a period (16th to the mid-19th century) in which the sailing ships dominated international trade and warfare.

Using a sea shanty is believed to have started to combat the monotonous nature of the demanding marine requirements.

The original purpose of the sea shanty was to give mundane chores a semblance of pleasure and merriment. Contrary to people’s interpretation, these songs were sung when the seafarers worked instead of being a tool for wasting time.

Here is an example of a Sea Shanty that appeared in the movie Moby Dick:

Shantyman: Our boots and clothes are all in pawn

Sailors: Go (pull) down ye blood red roses, go(pull) down.

‘Soon May The Wellerman Come’- A Shanty that went Viral on social media.

One of the most popular sea shanties was revived by a Scottish youth. In 2020, the 26-year-old Nathan Evans, an aspiring singer from Scotland, sang a sea shanty and uploaded his video on TikTok. Soon the shanty called ‘Soon May the Wellerman Come’ swept all over the internet, with musicians, maritime enthusiasts, content creators and dancers creating their reels and posts using the audio. It became a popular trend for many months.

Interestingly, the subject of this shanty was based on a true Story. The lyrics talk about the Weller brothers whaling company and its outpost in Otago, New Zealand. They mention whalers harpooning a whale and hoisting it on the vessel for butchery. Sailors must have sung it while butchering a whale since whale oil was an important component used to make various products like cosmetics, lotions etc.

Interestingly, these shanties tell much more. They are mirrors of a region’s maritime past. This shanty also tells us that the crew of whaling vessels was diverse. Edward Weller married a Maori woman, a New Zealand whaling community local.

Apart from this, many different shanties highlight different kinds of onboard work undertaken by sailors in those times.

According to Gerry Smyth, Professor of Irish cultural history at Liverpool John Moores University, the sea shanties created a sense of community and purpose among sailors on merchant marine vessels in the 1700s and 1800s. The professor has also authored the Sailor song: The Shanties and Ballads of the High Seas. He argues that they were created to match the tasks the sailors regularly did. For example, if the vessel were being hauled, the shanty would be about the physical effort being put in. Everyone would pull to the rhythm of the song’s harmony.

Origin of Sea Shanty

The origin of the word shanty remains unknown despite several inconclusive theories. According to the consistently offered claim, the etymological origin of the shanty is from the French word Chanter, which means “to sing.”

It is believed that the word shanty was introduced in the mid-19th century to denote a distinct genre of work song, which was developed especially in American-style merchant vessels.

However, while the evolution of chanter to shanty is accepted widely worldwide, in the then-modern American marine lingo, the term chanter was transformed to “chantey” to separate contextual connections with the British jargon.

Types and Usage of Sea Shanties

Among other work songs, the shanty genre remains distinct due to its formal characteristics and the specific manner of use, among others.

Typically, a shanty was performed in a call-and-response format, in which one sailor would call out a verse, prompting other sailors to respond in unison.

Within these two parts, known as the chant and the chorus, a shantyman would start the lyrics establishing the beat only to let the chorus join in.

The songs were divided into several categories according to the group of labourers they belonged to. The shanties are generally divided into three categories: the long haul, short haul and Capstan shanties.

The long-haul shanties, also known as halyard shanties, were sung during heavy jobs carried out for a long time. Mostly, the halyard shanties are used to coordinate hauling and are often used to set sails. For this type of shanty, a chorus comes at the end of each line.

This helps the sailors coordinate by taking a deep breath and getting a fresh grip between pulls. ‘Blow the Man Down is one of the popular long-haul shanties.

The short-haul or short drag shanties were used for tasks requiring quick pulls over a relatively short time. Sung during the unfurling or shortening of sail, these songs feature a steady rhythm, helping the sailors work simultaneously to get the job done safely and efficiently.

‘Paddy Doyle’s Boots’ is one of the short-haul shanties sung while furling the sails. Sailors used the Capstan or the Windlass shanties for long repetitive tasks that required a sustained rhythm.

The song was used when the crew around the Capstan raised and lowered heavy sails or the ship’s anchors. ‘Drunken Sailor’ is perhaps one of the most famous capstan shanties known to the public.

In addition to these, there were songs known as Pumping shanties, practised when battling leaks in the wooden ships.

As the old wooden sailing ships slightly leaked naturally, it was gruelling work for the seamen to drain the water in the vessel’s bilge. Similarly, the whaling shanties denote the difficulties of working aboard a whaling ship.

Sailors abroad on whaling ships face worst and life-threatening circumstances, which undertake months-long journeys. These whaling shanties gave them the strength to overcome and survive the harshness and dangers.

As mentioned earlier, the sea shanties’ rhythms helped sailors coordinate the vessel’s efforts abroad. Thus, these working songs focused on the rhythm and beat, allowing every sailor to sing and be part of the group.

Similarly, it wasn’t expected of the seafarers to possess excellent singing skills, as the sole purpose of these songs was to maintain a unique line of command that would help the seafarers carry out their work more orderly.

Likewise, every song’s melody and lyrics used to be impromptu conjuring instead of a planned and detailed composition.

The ditty’s lyrics and the tune are used to follow the chore’s pattern and movement. As we discussed, from the direction of the horizontal windlasses to the raising of the winches and sails, each chore had a sea shanty composed and belted out by the sailors.

With the huge role that the sea shanties have to play abroad the sailing vessel, the integration of sea shanties in the day-to-day lives of the sailors was an essential feature of the marine days of the 19th century.

Apart from tagging and composing verses while carrying out sailor duties, seafarers also used sea songs to reconnect with their kith and kin left behind on land.

Such sailor songs were different from sea shanties and were called as fo’c’sle, the tag derived from the housing accommodations of the seafarers on the vessel.

These songs were poignant and highly emotional and helped the sailors to develop an additional sense of belonging in the vast ocean.

The Decline of Sea Shanties’ Culture

Like work songs, shanties flourished for about five decades since their birth, minimising the burden of work aboard ships.

However, the development of the vessel construction and technology aboard the ship paved the way for more streamlined vessels.

The resultant reduction in time and effort taken by the seafarers to carry out even the simplest of routine tasks led to the decline of the sea shanties in the 1900s.

Still loved by modern sailors, the sea shanties are now rarely used as work songs since contemporary vessels do not require a large group of people to complete a task aboard.

Though there is no active use of sea shanties, a vast repertoire of such sailor songs is collected and presented to the world by sea shanty enthusiasts.

Through the videos and even though the available lyrics are put down, one can try and connect with these song marvels, whose actual glimpse the maritime community will never be able to hear or visualise.

Frequently Asked Questions About Shanties

1. What are some sea shanties that are historic?

Sea Shanties are of many kinds, depending on the type of work performed by people onboard specific ships. For instance, The Black Ball Line,  Blow the man down, Drunken Sailor and Go to Sea Once More are work songs. Some folk shanties about sailors, pirates and the ocean include Admiral Benbow, Bonnie Annie, the Daemon Lover and many more.

2. Are sea shanties still sung?

Sea shanties were sung in the medieval past when there were no digital forms of entertainment like today. Sailors and mariners sang songs to keep up their spirits and lift boredom at sea, resulting from performing mundane tasks every day.

3. Did Vikings sing sea shanties?

Vikings were a strong trading community dominant in the North Sea and the Baltic. Though they must have had unique shanties,  historians do not have any objective evidence regarding the kind of music the Norse listened to or sang.

4. Are sea shanties copyrighted?

Sea shanties are available in the public sphere. They are not restricted under strict copyright rules. Hence they can be played, transformed, reused and dueted.

5. Are sea shanties ballads?

A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty is a traditional folk song sung by sailors or workers onboard vessels while they remain immersed in their daily chores. These songs filled with vigour to complete the task and gave a sense of community and purpose. They may or may not be ballads. Some tell stories, while others describe the work being done.

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