Categories
Sea shanties and maritime songs organized by their traditional use and purpose aboard ship.
Hauling Shanties
A song from this large class of shanties would be used to synchronize hands during tasks that required significant physical exertion.
Heaving Shanties
Heaving shanties are used while working the capstan, brake windlass, or ship pumps.
Forecastle Songs and Ballads
After the day's work, when supper had been eaten and mess-kits put away, came the sailor's leisure time.
Whaling Songs
The rise and fall of whaling expeditions in the mid-1800s saw a unique class of songs emerge.
Fishing Songs
The songs of this category are often associated with specific fishing communities.
Ceremonial Shanties
Ceremonial shanties were those frequently reserved for times of celebration, such as when the sailor paid off his debt to the ship, when they crossed the equator, or when they left a port homeward bound.
Modern Sea Songs
These songs are markedly newer but they were deemed notable nonetheless.
Sea Poems
From naval ballads to novelists, national poet laureates to lonely lighthouse keepers, maritime poetry is an enormous field, but chronicling it is outside the scope of this collection.