soothing ruffled mechanical feathers

“one man cannot bring in the anchor. ten men cannot bring in the anchor. but together we can.”

making this because it’s useful for my specific brand of dramaturgy and i generally have a good deal of feelings about sea shanties. these are the result of far too much time searching around for shanties that are both authentic and have a tune that can be found on the internet. organized by theme.

these can all be done a capella, obviously, but if you want accompaniment, getting your hands on a concertina would be ideal.

General Shanties

Roll the Old Chariot Along (David Coffin)

Haul Away, Joe (The Eskies)

Rant and Roar (Howling Gael)

Haul Away the Bowline (The Exmouth Shantymen)

Departing

Away Rio (David Coffin)

Leave Her, Johnny (Coda)

The Rosabella (skip to 3:15) (Wareham Whalers)

Off to Sea Once More (The Black Irish Band)

Clear Away in the Morning (Great Bay Sailor) 

South Australia (Johnny Collins)

Randy Dandy Oh (Johnny Collins)

Girls

With You, Fair Maid (skip to 14:30) (Before the Mast)

Spanish Ladies (unknown artist) (psa this one is in moby-dick!!)

Bully in the Alley (skip to 24:10) (Before the Mast)

London Julie (Three Sheets to the Wind)

Excursion Round the Bay (The Fables)

The Maid of Amsterdam (The Roaring Trowmen)

Storms

Round Cape Horn (Cyril Tawney)

Fish in the Sea (youtube user threelegsomen)

To Old Maui (skip to 9:28) (Before the Mast)

Drinking

The Boatman’s Cure  (John Roberts)

Drunken Sailor (Irish Rovers)

Fifteen Men (unknown artist)

Newer/Environmentally Conscious

No More Fish, No More Fisherman (David Coffin)

Do you have a coupon? We don't need a coupon. We're the government. Which government?

The thing is, there’s no way to know where these people are coming from. In the before, when fandom was more in the corners we all knew about, you could search LJ or a message board or whatever social bookmarking site we were using. You could join the community and participate.

You could get a little dopamine hit by seeing someone tell their friends why they loved your story.

Anymore, those recs are hidden in discords, or in tiktoks or instagram slideshows that you can’t search for. They’re inaccessible, not discoverable unless you’re already there. You may never know why 27 people left kudos on an old story of yours, what they liked and found in your writing. You just get the thumbs up and a kinda lonely feeling, cause these could be your people. You could like them, maybe. You could be friends.

But you’ll never find out why they stopped by, or what people are saying about you behind your back, and that’s sad.