The Shanty Book, Part I, Sailor Shanties
The Shanty Book, Part I, Sailor Shanties is a collection of traditional sea shanties compiled and edited in the early 20th century. It aims to preserve the maritime heritage of sailor songs that became less common with the decline of sailing vessels. The book features well-known shanties like 'Billy Boy,' 'Shenandoah,' and 'What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?' Each song is presented with lyrics and musical notation, along with notes on their origins and cultural significance, highlighting the role of these songs in sailors' labor and camaraderie.
Editions
X-Ray
“Before the days of factories and machinery, all forms of work were literally manual labour, and all the world over the labourer, obeying a primitive instinct, sang at his toil: the harvester with his sickle, the weaver at the loom, the spinner at the wheel. Long after machinery had driven the labour-song from the land it survived at sea in the form of shanties, since all work aboard a sailing vessel was performed by hand.””
— Unknown
