Charlie Ipcar, a maritime writer and performer from Maine, compiled this collection of lesser-known sea songs. More information on the songbook, including a sample of the contents, can be found on Charlie’s website.

From the Preface:

The mission of this songbook is to provide ready access to fifty finely crafted sailor songs that are not commonly sung by contemporary nautical singers, primarily because the songs are unfamiliar to them. Some are very old but have eluded the attention of our singers. The vast majority, however, are recently adapted for singing from vintage nautical poems and are only just beginning to be added to the sea music repertoire. Poets include Bill Adams, Edwin J. Brady, Lincoln Colcord, Burt Franklin Jenness, Harry Kemp, Henry Lawson, Hamish MacLaren, John Masefield, William McFee, Angus Cameron Robertson, and Robert Louis Stevenson; most of these poets had actual experience as sailors. Other songs are newly composed in the tradition of older sea songs, and are testament to the continuation and revitalization of nautical singing: Ron Baxter, Jon Campbell, Amos Jessop, Joe McGrath, Vince Morash, Rudy Sunde, and Bob Watson. And some are parodies of traditional sea songs: Talitha MacKenzie, and Micki Perry

Table of Contents:

  1. Bound Away
  2. A Pier-Head Chorus
  3. Windlass Chanty
  4. Yangtse River Shanty
  5. Sea Traders
  6. Auckland to the Bluff
  7. Tasman Buster
  8. Christmas at Sea
  9. Tramps (Chantey for Steam)
  10. High Tide at 4 A.M.
  11. The Clan Alpine
  12. The Chantey of the Cook
  13. Sea Cook
  14. Hell’s Pavement
  15. Mariner’s Compass
  16. A Ballad of the Old Navy
  17. Laying on the Screw
  18. Concrete and Glass
  19. Frederick’s of Woolloomooloo
  20. Widgery Wharf
  21. Wake Up Susiana
  22. Merchants Island
  23. Dramamine
  24. Dr. Dogbody’s Leg
  25. The Tattooed Lady
  26. Pearl Diver
  27. Bumboats
  28. West Indies Blues
  29. Sea Dreams
  30. Pirate’s Own Song
  31. A Ballad of John Silver
  32. Wrecker’s Song
  33. The Salvage Men
  34. Rodent Mariners
  35. The Old She-Crab
  36. The Tale of Lobster Barbie
  37. Haul Away the Nets
  38. The Spectral Fishing Fleet
  39. Freedom Schooner Amistad
  40. Captain Bailey’s Mistake
  41. Wreck of the Lady Washington
  42. A Cowardly Act
  43. Neptune’s Daughter
  44. Mother Carey
  45. Swabbing Days Are Gone
  46. Sail on Chalk Ginger Blue
  47. The Old Tea-Clipper Days
  48. The Press Room’s Extra Voice
  49. Mid-Watches
  50. The Outside Track