They are being shared on this site for educational purposes only, please see our copyright page for more info. These transcriptions are made by many different individuals from all over the world for their own research and instruction, and as such are liable to great variation in interpretation and opinion. Many of the songs on this site are in the public domain or traditional categories, however this cannot be guaranteed, and should you wish to use them as a basis of a performance or for any non-personal study purpose you are advised to contact the copyright holders (where available, copyright info has been included with the song). Traditional Sea Shanties and Sea Songs (also on this site) Shanties and Sea Songs Library of Congress Recent performances range from the “traditional” style of practitioners within a revival-oriented, maritime music scene, to the adoption of shanty repertoire by musicians in a variety of popular styles. The modern performance contexts of these songs have affected their forms, their content, and the way they are understood as cultural and historical artifacts. Commercial musical recordings, popular literature, and other media, especially since the 1920s, have inspired interest in shanties among land-folk. Information about shanties was preserved by veteran sailors and by folklorist song-collectors, and their written and audio-recorded work provided resources that would later support a revival in singing shanties as a land-based leisure activity. Their use as work songs became negligible in the first half of the 20th century.

The switch to steam-powered ships and the use of machines for shipboard tasks, by the end of the 19th century, meant that shanties gradually ceased to serve a practical function. Although most prominent in English, shanties have been created in or translated into other European languages. Shanties were sung without instrumental accompaniment and, historically speaking, they were only sung in work-based rather than entertainment-oriented contexts. The leader, called the shantyman, was appreciated for his piquant language, lyrical wit, and strong voice. Its hallmark was call and response, performed between a soloist and the rest of the workers in chorus. The shanty genre was typified by flexible lyrical forms, which in practice provided for much improvisation and the ability to lengthen or shorten a song to match the circumstances. Such tasks, which usually required a coordinated group effort in either a pulling or pushing action, included weighing anchor and setting sail. Shanty repertoire borrowed from the contemporary popular music enjoyed by sailors, including minstrel music, popular marches, and land-based folk songs, which were adapted to suit musical forms matching the various labor tasks required to operate a sailing ship. They were notably influenced by songs of African Americans, such as those sung whilst manually loading vessels with cotton in ports of the southern United States. Shanties had antecedents in the working chants of British and other national maritime traditions. The practice of singing shanties eventually became ubiquitous internationally and throughout the era of wind-driven packet and clipper ships. Shanty songs functioned to economize labor in what had then become larger vessels having smaller crews and operating on stricter schedules. Of uncertain etymological origin, the word shanty emerged in the mid-19th century in reference to an appreciably distinct genre of work song, developed especially in American-style merchant vessels that had come to prominence in decades prior to the American Civil War. However, in recent, popular usage, the scope of its definition is sometimes expanded to admit a wider range of repertoire and characteristics, or to refer to a “maritime work song” in general. The term shanty most accurately refers to a specific style of work song belonging to this historical repertoire. A SEA SHANTY, SHANTIE, CHANTEY, OR CHANTY is a type of work song that was once commonly sung to accompany labor on board large merchant sailing vessels.

A sea of roses chords