A capstan shanty sung while hauling anchor. Heavy on the beat, D Dorian, and best played loud.
The story
Shanties were work songs. Their rhythm kept a crew pulling together on ropes, hauling sails up or the anchor in. The singing made hard, dangerous work go faster.
The earliest printed mention of this one comes from an 1839 whaling voyage out of New London, Connecticut. The writer noted it was sung “with very good effect when there is a long line of men hauling together”.
Each verse proposes a punishment for the drunken sailor: put him in the longboat till he’s sober, shave his belly with a rusty razor… and the crew could invent new ones as long as the work lasted.
Three things to know
- It is in the Dorian mode, like Scarborough Fair.
- The whole melody uses only two chords: D minor and C major.
- Shanties belonged to merchant ships; the Royal Navy generally discouraged singing at work.
How to play it
Stamp on the strong beats: this is music for pulling ropes, so give the first beat of each bar a real accent.