Our repertoire of sea shanties currently include:

​

All for me Grog

All for me Grog originated at sea, it was more of a drinking song really, telling the story of a man who sells all his possessions, and even his wife, in order to pay for more drink and tobacco. It quickly became popular in pubs for this reason. The term 'grog' by the way refers to the daily ration of rum that was given to sailors in the Royal Navy.

 

Haul Away Joe

Haul Away Joe is a 'tack and sheet' shanty, according to some chap called Stan Hugill, who records no less than 20 verses for it. Hugill thinks it may have been a 'halyard song'. It seems to have been known among British sailors prior to 1812, but was then picked up by American sailors and started to become really well known in America around the period of the Civil War.

​

Bully in the Alley

Bully in the Alley started life as a negro song, presumably sung by slaves. 'Shinbone Al' may have related to a location in Pittsburgh, Bermuda or Antigua. There is some speculation that 'Bully' could refer to being drunk or it may have meant just being aggressive - for example taking a jacket off in a back alley ready for a fight. 

​

Maid of Amsterdam (A' Roving)

This shanty may date as far back as the Elizabethan or Jacobean period. Versions of it have been found in Great Britain, Denmark and France. Some have linked it to Thomas Heywood's play The Rape of Lucrece, published in 1608 and performed around 1630. 

​

Leave Her Johnny

Stan Hugill listed this as a pump shanty and halyard. It may have come to prominence around the time of the Irish potato famine and was sung aboard the western ocean packets. 

​

Steepholm

This is a brand new tune composed by our very own David Stott, who intends to add to the existing verses at some point. Among other things it references St Gildas and the Orkney Pirates, and adds a local flavour to our repertoire.

​

South Australia

South Australia was sung by a number of trades, including wool and wheat traders who manned the clipper ships between Australian ports and London. Information on its exact age is sparse, but it was certainly known by 1888 when sea music author L. A. Smith included it in her collection The Music of The Waters.

​

Spanish Ladies

This is a traditional British navy song. A ballad with this title was registered by the English Stationers Company in 1624, but the oldest mention of the present song is in the logbook of HMS Nellie in 1724.

​

Blow the Man Down

'Blow the Man Down' may refer to someone being struck, but it is more likely related to a mishap at sea during the age of sail in which a strong, sudden gale catches a ship with its topsails set, with the force of the wind being able to 'blow the man down' - that is to say, a 'man-o-war' - with such force that it partially capsizes the ship. This shanty was certainly well known by the 1860s.

​

Lowlands Away

This may have emerged from a remnant of an Anglo-Scottish ballad that was later picked up by sailors and sung while manning the pumps. It was also subsequently sung by negro slaves carrying cotton bales around the American ports.

​

Derby Ram

Llewellyn Jewitt wrote about the song in his The Ballads and Songs of Derbyshire of 1867, asserting that song had been alluded to for at least a century before that. The First Regiment of Derbyshire Militia adopted a ram as their mascot, and the song as their anthem.

​

Good Morning Ladies All

This was collected by Stan Hugill from West Indian seamen. It may have been a pumping shanty but could also have been a song used by the hoosiers of Mobile Bay to work the great jackscrews to force as much cotton as possible into the hold of a ship.

​

Roll The Old Chariot

This is another song that seems to have been originally sung by negro slaves. It was also a "stamp-and-go" or "walk away" shanty, sung by sailors holding on to a line and walking with it, applying a steady pull on the ship's braces that swing the yardarms around. It was also used by men working the Downtown Pumps - giant flywheels resembling the wheels of a chariot.

​

Drunken Sailor

Perhaps the most well known shanty, this is first recorded in 1839 on a whaling voyage out of New London, Connecticut into the Pacific Ocean. However, it may date back to at least the 1820s, although references to it from that time are rare.

​

Other shanties that we are currently developing include: Whiskey In The Jar, Don't Forget Your Old Shipmate and Billy Riley

​

Admiral Benbow

This is a relatively new shanty for us and we are still refining it, if we're honest, but it should take its place in our regular repertoire soon, along with our more regular songs. This shanty commemorates the memory of Admiral John Benbow, who was born in Shrewsbury in 1653, joined the Royal Navy at the age of 25 and fought in a string of naval battles against the French, eventually being promoted to Admiral and posted to the West Indies where his leg was shattered by chain shot in a battle in 1702. He did not survive the journey home.

​

Blood Red Roses

Blood Red Roses is a halyard shanty that was featured in the movie Moby Dick in 1956, sung by A L Lloyd. It was first mentioned in print in 1879, but the chorus "Go down you Blood Red Roses" may have been mentioned by Lloyd himself for the movie. However, "Come down, you bunch of roses" appears in an 1879 book by Captain R. C. Adams On Board the Rocket, while another book by Doerflinger Shantymen and Shantyboys (1951) features a text and melody for this line.

​

The Mingulay Boat Song

The Mingulay Boat Song is a very moving song written in the 1930s by Sir Hugh S. Robertson (1874-1952). It concerns a group of fishermen sailing home to the Isle of Mingulay where their families are anxiously waiting for them. Hugh Robertson in his Songs of the Isles (1937) describes the melody as a traditional Gaelic tune which may have been entitled Lochaber, while the tune formed part of another Gaelic song, Oran na Comhachaig. 

​

Sam's Gone Away

The origins of this shanty are not fully known, but it seems that musician Jack Stanesco heard it being sung by fishermen on St. Vincent's Island when he was  the Peace Corps. It can be a bit tedious if the entire shanty is sung, consisting largely of verses in which the central character rises through the ranks - cabin boy, powder monkey, bosun etc - to become an Admiral on a Royal Navy man o'war, so we usually miss out one or two of the verses to shorten it somewhat.

​

Heave Ho, Me Hearties

​

Heave Ho, Me Hearties, is one of three songs, the first of them being Steep Holm, composed by David Stott, with a third yet to be arranged. As with Steep Holm, this song features well-known locations in our native county of Somerset, well, just two this time actually, Bristol and Porlock. 

​

John Kanaka

John Kanaka is a very popular “long haul” chantey which was sung while hoisting the sails and reflects the many Hawaiians who worked on ships sailing across the Pacific Ocean and who were excellent seamen. Since English sailors often experienced difficulty pronouncing their names, it seems that instead they used the Hawaiian word 'Kanaka', which means 'Hawaiian man'. 

​

Other shanties that we are currently developing include: Don't Forget Your Old Shipmate, Billy Riley and a number of new compositions from David Stott. 

​