Transcript Sea shanties

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Sea shanties (singular "shanty", also spelled "chantey"; derived from the French word "chanter",
'to sing') were shipboard working songs. Shanties flourished from at least the 15th century through
the days of steam ships in the first half of the 20th century. Most surviving shanties date from the
19th and, less commonly, 18th centuries.
In the days when human muscles were the only power source available aboard ship, sea shanties
served a practical purpose: the rhythm of the song served to synchronize the movements of the
sailors as they toiled at repetitive tasks. They also served a social purpose: singing, and listening
to song, is pleasant; it alleviates boredom, and lightens the burden of hard work, of which there
was no shortage on long voyages.
Most shanties are "call and response" songs, with one voice (the shantyman) singing the line and
the chorus of sailors bellowing the response (compare military cadence calls). For example, the
shanty "Boney":
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Shantyman: Boney was a warrior,
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All: Way, hey, ya!
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Shantyman: A warrior and a terrier,
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All: Jean-François!
The "pulls" would be on the last syllable of the response in each line.
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Long-haul (also called "halyard" or "long-drag") shanties: Sung when a job of hauling on a line was expected to last a long time, hoisting
topsails, for example. Usually there are two pulls per chorus as in Way, hey, Blow the man down! Examples: "Hanging Johnny", "Blow
the Man Down."
Short-drag (also called "short-haul", or "sheet") shanties: Sung when a job of hauling on a line was expected to be quick but required great
force. These are characterized by one strong pull in each chorus as in "Way, haul away, haul away Joe!". Examples: "Boney", and "Haul
on the Bowline."
Capstan Shanties: Raising the anchor on a ship involved winding the rope along a giant winch, turned by sailors walking around it.
Capstan shanties are anchor-raising shanties. They are typically more "smooth" sounding than other types (no pulling required) and,
unlike many other types of shanties, frequently have a full chorus in addition to the call-and-response verses. Examples: "Santianna",
"Paddy Lay Back", "Rio Grande", "South Australia", "John Brown's Body" (adapted from Army marching song).
Stamp-'n'-Go Shanties: were used only on ships with large crews. Many hands would take hold of a line with their backs to the fall (where
the line reaches the deck from aloft) and march away along the deck singing and stamping out the rhythm. Alternatively, with a larger
number of men, they would create a loop -- marching along with the line, letting go at the 'end' of the loop and marching back to the 'top' of
the loop to take hold again for another trip. These songs tend to have longer choruses similar to capstan shanties. Examples: "Drunken
Sailor", "Roll the Old Chariot". Stan Hugill, in his Shanties from the Seven Seas writes: "(Drunken Sailor) is a typical example of the
stamp-'n'-go song or walkaway or runaway shanty, and was the only type of work-song allowed in the King's Navee (sic). It was popular in
ships with big crews when at halyards; the crowd would seize the fall and stamp the sail up. Sometimes when hauling a heavy boat up the
falls would be 'married' and both hauled on at the same time as the hands stamped away singing this rousing tune."
Pumping Shanties: All wooden ships leak somewhat. There was a special hold (cargo area) in the ships where the leaked-in water (the
bilge) would collect: the bilge hold. The bilge water had to be pumped out frequently; on period ships this was done with a two-man pump.
Many pumping shanties were also used as capstan shanties, and vice versa, particularly after the adoption of the Downton pump which
used a capstan rather than pump handles moved up and down. Examples include: "Strike The Bell", "Shallow Brown", "Barnacle Bill the
Sailor", "Lowlands".
Fo'c's'le (Forecastle) Songs or Forebitters: Shanties are worksongs and were sung only for work. However, sailors also sang for pleasure
in the fo'c's'le where they slept or, in fine weather, gathered near the fore bitts (large posts on the foredeck). Example: "Rolling Down to
Old Maui". While songs with maritime themes were sung, sea songs were not the only sort sung off watch.
Menhaden Shanties: These are worksongs used on menhaden fishing boats, sung while pulling up the nets. Typical examples are "The
Johnson Girls" and "Won’t You Help Me to Raise ‘Em Boys."
The above categories are not absolute. Sailors could (and did) take a song from one category and, with necessary alterations to the
rhythm, use it for a different task. The only rule almost always followed was that songs that spoke of returning home were only sung on
the homeward leg, and songs that sung of the joys of voyaging etc., were only sung on the outward leg. Other songs were very specific.
"Poor Old Man" (also known as "Poor Old Horse" or "The Dead Horse") was sung once the sailors had worked off their advance (the
"horse") a month or so into the voyage. "Leave Her, Johnny Leave Her" (also known as "Time for Us to Leave Her") was only sung during
the last round of pumping the ship dry once it was tied up in port, prior to leaving the ship at the end
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The shantyman
The shantyman was a sailor who led the others in singing. He was usually self-appointed. A sailor would not
generally sign on as a shantyman per se, but took on the role in addition to their other tasks on the ship.
Nevertheless, sailors reputed to be good shantymen were valuable and respected — it was a good professional
skill to have, along with strong arms and back.
[edit] Performance of shanties
Historically, shanties were usually not sung ashore. Today, they are performed as popular music. Shanty choirs,
often large choral groups that perform only sea shanties, are popular in Europe, particularly Poland and the
Netherlands, but also countries such as Germany and Norway. In English-speaking countries, sea shanties are
comparatively less popular as a separate genre and tend to be performed by smaller groups as folk music rather
than in a choral style. They are also sung by some folk music clubs as a social pastime, not for performance. A
medley of sea shanties performed by classical orchestra, Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs, is a
popular component of the Last Night of the Proms in Britain.
Although the "days of the tall ships" are over, the shanty song style is still used for new musical compositions. Well
known examples include the Stan Rogers song, "Barrett's Privateers," the Steve Goodman song, "Lincoln Park
Pirates," and the theme song for the television show SpongeBob SquarePants (a version of "Blow the Man
Down"). Even the song "Reise, Reise" by the German Tanz-Metall band Rammstein is based on a shanty, "Reise,
Reise."
Johnny Depp reportedly developed an interest in sea shanties while filming Pirates of the Caribbean. As a result,
in 2006 he helped facilitate Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys, an album of informal
recordings of variable quality, primarily by performers not known for prior interest in or knowledge of sea shanties.
According to the liner notes, the producer, Hal Wilner, knew nothing of sea shanties before beginning the project.
The notes state that many of the performers learned the songs in a matter of hours before recording, by listening
to recordings of traditional sea shanty performers. However, other performers on the album, such as Sting, did
have a prior interest.
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Literary references to sea shanties
I soon got used to this singing; for the sailors never touched a rope without it. Sometimes, when
no one happened to strike up, and the pulling, whatever it might be, did not seem to be getting
forward very well, the mate would always say, "Come, men, can't any of you sing? Sing now, and
raise the dead." And then some one of them would begin, and if every man's arms were as much
relieved as mine by the song, and he could pull as much better as I did, with such a cheering
accompaniment, I am sure the song was well worth the breath expended on it. It is a great thing in
a sailor to know how to sing well, for he gets a great name by it from the officers, and a good deal
of popularity among his shipmates. Some sea-captains, before shipping a man, always ask him
whether he can sing out at a rope. (Herman Melville, Redburn: His First Voyage, 1849)
A song is as necessary to sailors as the drum and fife to a soldier. They must pull together as
soldiers must step in time, and they can't pull in time, or pull with a will, without it. Many a time,
when a thing goes heavy, with one fellow yo-ho-ing, a lively song, like "Heave, to the girls!"
"Nancy O!" "Jack Crosstree," "Cheerly, men," &c., has put life and strength into every arm. We
found a great difference in the effect of the various songs in driving in the hides. Two or three
songs would be tried, one after the other, with no effect,-- not an inch could be got upon the
tackles; when a new song, struck up, seemed to hit the humor of the moment, and drove the
tackles "two blocks" at once. "Heave round hearty!" "Captain gone ashore!" "Dandy ship and a
dandy crew," and the like, might do for common pulls, but on an emergency, when we wanted a
heavy, "raise-the-dead pull," which should start the beams of the ship, there was nothing like
"Time for us to go!" "Round the corner," "Tally high ho! you know," or "Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty
bullies!" (Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, 1840)
There is some suggestion that the Provençal song by the Comtessa de Dia titled "A Chantar M'er"
may be