Sea Shantys

Sea Shanties

Popular in the days of the great sailing ships, sea shanties and sea songs remain popular in many places and among many groups. A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty is defined as a type of traditional folk song that was sung as a work song to accompany a coordinated group effort in either a pulling or pushing action, included weighing anchor and setting sail, aboard sailing vessels. The practice of singing shanties eventually became wide-spread around the world during the era of wind-driven packet and clipper ships.

Shanties often borrowed from the contemporary popular music enjoyed by sailors, including minstrel music, popular marches, and land-based folk songs, which were then adapted to suit musical forms matching the various labor tasks required to operate a sailing ship.

The switch to steam-powered ships the end of the 19th century meant that shanties gradually ceased to serve a practical function. Information about shanties was preserved by veteran sailors and folklorist song-collectors, and their written and audio-recorded work provided resources that has supported a revival in singing shanties. And, although once limited to a specific style, in recent years its defination has been expanded to admit more general songs about the sea including ballads.

Contemporary performances of these songs range from the "traditional" style of maritime music to various modern music genres.

Two examples that we have are

For more information, see Sea Shanty at Wikipedia.

Here are 15 collections of sea shanties and sea songs; all are in the public domain.