Tuesday 14 June 2011

Types of Sea Shanty

  • Long-haul (also called "halyard" or "long-drag") shanties:
  • Short-drag (also called "short-haul", or "sheet") shanties:
  • Capstan Shanties:
  • 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:
  • Fo'c's'le (Forecastle) Songs, Fo'castle Shanty (Chantey) or Forebitters:
  • Menhaden Shanties:

See full article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_shanty

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