When one talks about shanties one usually has the image of a bunch of sailors hauling on ropes on board an old sailing ship and that would not be wrong, however it is not the whole story.
For thousands of years it has been known that a group of people working together are much more effective if there is some way of controlling the timing of their efforts. The old cliché of oarsmen rowing Greek galleys to the beat of a drum is a classic example. If all the rowers time their efforts to coincide at the beat of the drum then the result is much more effective than individual efforts randomly applied. Moreover the drumbeat means that the rowers do not have to watch their neighbours. Night or day, fair weather or foul they can all act in unison.
The beat is all that is actually needed but as ships became less regimented or for work on smaller vessels the use of a crew-member simply for beating this time became unsustainable. The human voice would suffice if used properly. A steady chant could not be sustained however so other means were devised. The earliest of these was known as singing out and is still used in all manner of places today. That is the use of such phrases as One, Two, Three Pull or the more nautical Yo-Heave Ho. The key to success here is the count or the cautionary words of warning Yo-Heave followed by an explosive shout when the effort is applied. This is usually very terse because of the need to produce the quick, collective effort and also because the caller was probably pulling hard as well and the shout was all that he could manage. Rather like the weight-lifters grunt.
As time went by different chants developed for different tasks and the cautionary words were embellished grew into descriptive phrases such as Haul on the bow-line... Haul Boys... HAUL! It is a short step from these to the sort of shanties that we know and love. There are thousands of shanties divided into a number of categories depending on the task. Short haul shanties, long haul shanties, sweating up shanties, capstan shanties, pump shanties, rowing shanties etc but one thing that is common to all true shanties is the explosive effort words and the cautionary preparative words.
So a proper shanty is a work song that is categorised by regular cautionary words followed by an explosive effort shout to time the work.
Work was never a 24 hour a day routine. Except for very exceptional times (when it really was "all hands on deck" ) a ships crew were divided into shifts or "watches" and often in their slack time the sailors would entertain each other with tall tales and stories or songs. The crew, as opposed to the officers, would inhabit the part of the ship known as the fore-castle or would congregate round the prow sat on the "fore-bits" and hence the songs and tales heard there would be known as fore-castle tales of the songs as fore-bitters. It is common nowadays to call most sea-faring songs especially the loud and raucous ones, shanties but the distinction between shanty and fore-bitters was important. A sailor would not sing work songs in his leisure time.
The name shanty is also often misunderstood and there are three commonly held views on its origins.
Perhaps it developed from the chants that were the fore-runners of the modern songs. That would fit the American spelling of the word (Chantey) but not the pronunciation. The soft shh is a standard even if the spelling varies.
Perhaps it developed from the command to sing out which in French is Chantez. Here the pronunciation fits and the spelling would fit in with an unlettered sailors attempt to render spoken French into a written form. But it is still hardly credible if one considers the timing of the words introduction. As far as current research can tell the word shanty first appeared in print in 1869 ( by a writer in Chamber's Journal) but I believe it probably came into common usage for sea songs nearer to the start of the 19th century. At the time Britain had been at war with the French on and off for most of the previous 100 years and it is unlikely that anything French would have gained much favour.
Perhaps the word that we use for sea songs does not actually derive from the songs but the place where they were sung. Two common places where similar songs were sung were on the American loading docks where slaves used their own songs to help in the loading of the ships, and the North American and Canadian lumber camps where the lumbermen had their songs to help with the hauling of logs. The singers especially the lumberjacks often lived together in Shanty towns (From the Gaelic ... maybe). There was a lot of crossover as sailors returning from one voyage would earn their living before the next voyage in these trades or dockers and lumbermen would try their hand at the sailing trade. [It can not be coincidence that a Jack-Tar could also be a Lumber-Jack] It is little stretch of the imagination to hear the sailors calling for those shanty songs or just for shanties
The true origin is shrouded in a mystery even Hugill and Doerflinger couldn't solve but the final one seems most compelling to this writer.
Sources
Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman, William Main Doerflinger, published by Meyerbooks, Glenwood, Illinois
Shanties from the Seven Seas, Stan Hugill, published by Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut
Songs of American Sailormen, Joanna C. Colcord, published by W. W. Norton & co, New York
This is a copy of a piece I wrote for a folk-magazine. I'll try a description of fore-bitters next.
Shanties usually bring up the image of a bunch of sailors hauling on ropes on board a sailing ship and that's not wrong, however it is not the whole story.
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Jim-
Well, here's a glass of old Port Royal rum to you! And I'll buy a round for anyone else who can fathom this mystery.
Cheerily,
Charley Noble
Edited on Jun 06, 3:25 p.m. because 'Typo in spelling name'. -
As you say there is no direct print reference prior to that in Chambers in 1869 but it didn't spring from nowhere. It must have been in common usage long before that but it was passed along via the oral tradition and so no reference would need to be made in print.
I have adjusted the text to make this point clearer and to emphasise that it is an assumption.
I trust that there will be a few others who will look in and pass their opinion, not just leave it to we two
)
Jim
Edited on Jun 06, 5:18 because ''. -
Jim-
We are together on our sources and I certainly respect Hugill in addition to C. Fox Smith, Joanna Colcord and others.I also agree that it was likely that the word shanty/chanty/chantey was used by sailors long before 1869. Charles Nordhoff traced it back to stevedores in Mobile Bay in the late 1840's, the leader of which was known as the chantyrman. "Fire Maringo" is one of the worksongs he mentions and provides verses to. But I don't think there is any direct literature reference to an earlier date and you might consider qualifying your statement above with regard to "what research has been able to show."
Of course, we may be the only two here in this forum who could argue this question! But now it's back to your side of the deck.
Cheerily,
Charley Noble -
The key point here is the difference between in use and in print.
Whilst the word has not been found in print before 1869 according to my current information, Hugill talks about Chansons pour Passer le Temps as 18th Century and has earlier examples of sea songs from many nations. I feel it is not inconcievable that the word was used long before it was in print.
Jim -
Excellent work, Jim.
However, though I agree that work songs have a long history, both ashore and at sea, I'm unaware of any source that has nailed down the term shanty/chanty/chantey to describe the work songs aboard ships before the 1850's.
Cheerily,
Charley Noble -
Thanks neice. I'm pleased you liked it.
Jim -
Thanks for those nice words and the generous applause.
It's nice to hear from you again.
Jim -
wow...this is very interesting dear uncle.
Thanks for sharing with us.
Wish you always the best.
Shahrzad
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Thank you! I do enjoy your writing and always learn something from it.
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That is what I call speed. I was still editing out the smileys when I got your message. I hope you enjoyed it. It was something I was asked to do for a folk-magazine put I thought I might as well try it out here as well.
Jim -
How very interesting. I'm glad I got to read this!
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