The History of Sailing "Shanty" Songs
Sea-Songs/Shanty/Chanty Early Forms:
The Latin roots for this type of song can be traced back to at least about the 6th century, when Christian monks began to sail away from the shores of Ireland to remote island locations. Along they way, they would perform monastic chants while doing work, or in harried situations to pray to the divine order to carry them to safety. Saint Brendan the Abbott, was one of the most famous of these monks, reportedly to have reached North America long before either Columbus or the Vikings, and wrote a detailed account of his voyage in the Navigato Sancti Brendani Abbatis [The Voyage Of St. Brendan the Abbott] (D. O’Donoghue, Brendaniana, 1893), in this account there are several different references to the singing of hymns and chanting in a call and response style. This is noted very concisely in one passage in particular; whereupon the 3rd watch, St. Brendan & crew would sing in a call and response style:
...When supper was ended, and the divine office discharged, the man of God and his companions retired to rest until the third watch of the night, when he aroused them all from sleep, chanting the verse: ‘Thou, O Lord, wilt open my lips;’ whereupon all the birds, with voice and wing, warbled in response: ‘Praise the Lord, all His angels, praise Him all His virtues.’ Thus they sang for an hour every night; and when morning dawned, they chanted: ‘May the splendour of the Lord God be upon us,’ in the same melody and measures their matin praises of God. Again, at tierce, they sang the verse: ‘Sing to our God, sing; sing to our King, sing wisely;’ at sext: The Lord hath caused the light of His countenance to shine upon us, and may He have mercy on us;’ and at none they sang: ‘Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity.’ Thus day and night those birds gave praise to God. St Brendan, seeing all this, made thanksgiving to the Lord for all His wonderful works; and the brethren were thus regaled with such spiritual viands until the octave of the Easter festival. [The monks and the birds here very explicitly engage in a 'call and response' manner of singing]
There is also mention of a "Sea-Roller's Song" composed by Heriulf Heriulfsson the son of Bard Heriulfsson, in The Voyages To Vinland [1000 A.D.] (Harvard, 1909), [the account of the discovery of North America by Leif Ericsson contained in the “Saga of Eric the Red”; and the present translation made by A. M. Reeves from the version of the Saga in the Flateyar-bok, compiled by Jon Thordharson about 1387],
Upon the ship with Heriulf was a Christian man from the Hebrides; he it was who composed the Sea-Roller’s Song, which contains this stave:
“Mine adventure to the Meek One,
Monk-heart-searcher, I commit now;
He, who heaven’s halls doth govern,
Hold the hawk’s-seat ever o’er me!”
From these early monastic roots, shanties in medieval Europe came to be used by sea-farers, mariners, and pilgrims alike --- as primarily songs sung while working the ship or to raise morale.
As this early account written around 1480-1483, taken from The Book of Wanderings from Brother Felix Fabri (trans.Aubrey Stewart, M.A. Published London, 24, HANOVER SQUARE, 1896) describes:
ABOUT THE SHIP IN WHICH THE PILGRIMS CROSS THE SEA, WHICH IS NAMED A GALLEY;
HOW GREAT AND OF WHAT SORT IT IS.
They are in general very active young men, who are quite reckless of their lives, and are also bold and powerful in the galley like a baron's armed followers. Under these again there are others who are called mariners, who sing when work is going on, because work at sea is very heavy, and is only carried on by a concert between one who sings out orders and the labourers who sing in response. So these men stand by those who are at work, and sing to them, encourage them, and threaten to spur them on with blows. Great weights are dragged about by their means.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus' journal makes reference to an ancient hymn, Salve Regina, which was sung by the seaman in the fc's'le, "they said the 'Salve,' which all the sailors are used to say and sing in their fashion, the Admiral ordered them to look out well from the forecastle" (9)
Peter F. Copeland, in "The Sailors of Palos," in American History Illustrated, Vol XXVII, Number 1, March/April 93, writes that according to Columbus' journal: " An apprentice carried the binnacle lamp aft along the deck, singing "Amen and God give us a good night and a good sailing. May the ship make a good passage, captain and master and good company." Then the apprentices led the sailors in prayer, chanting the Pater Noster, the Ave Maria, and the Credo, after which all hands sang the Salve Regina. For the sailors these chanted rituals of the church were comforting and expected, their only link to their distant homeland".
Although a religious hymn, seafaring men doubtless came to favor it (Salve Regina) because it was so eminently singable. It came to be used as part of the ritual for the blessing of a ship, and the core of evening service on shipboard (10). In Samuel E. Morrison's Admiral of The Ocean Sea, he refers to it as an "ancient Spanish shanty" sung aboard Columbus's ships. There is considerable evidence that the hymn was popular as a song of exultant joy, a tribute more to its lilting melody than to its references to mourning, weeping and exile.
This hymn can also be traced to formulas taught on missionary journeys, especially in the Caribbean. It was popular at medieval universities as evening song, and was the frequent setting for devotions known as Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Chantries were established in the medieval and Renaissance periods for the singing of the Salve, especially on Saturday evenings. [A chantry is an endowment or foundation for the chanting of masses and offering of prayers for particular persons or intentions.] Regardless of its historical origin, it was well known and established in France and Germany by the 12th century. It was definitely part of the liturgical prayer of many monasteries and part of the common prayer of many religious orders.(11)
Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae;
vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Hevae.
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia ergo, advocata nostra,
illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte.
Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria.
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy,
hail, our life, our sweetness, and our hope.
To you we cry, the children of Eve;
to you we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this land of exile.
Turn, then, most gracious advocate,
your eyes of mercy toward us;
lead us home at last
and show us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus:
O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary.
Earliest Documented English Sea Shanty:
As far as the earliest documented existence of English sailors singing at work comes from a manuscript of the reign of the English king Henry VI (1421-71). This is a sea song, perhaps one of the oldest in Europe -- describing a ship loaded with pilgrims, bound from Sandwyche, Wynchelsee, and Bristow (Bristol) toward the shrine of St. James (Santiago) in Compostella Spain (12). Those who are interested will find it in J.O Haliwell's Early Naval Ballads of England (1841) which is generally considered to be the first anthology of such ballads and shanties and sits in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge:
Anon the master commandeth fast
To his ship-men in all the hast[e],
To dresse them [line up] soon about the mast
Their takeling to make.
With _Howe! Hissa!_ then they cry,
'What howe! mate thou standest too nigh,
Thy fellow may not haul thee by:'
Thus they begin to crake [shout].
A boy or twain anon up-steyn [go aloft]
And overthwart the sayle-yerde leyn [lie]
_Y-how! taylia!_ the remnant cryen [cry]
And pull with all their might.
Bestow the boat, boat-swain, anon,
That our pylgrymms may play thereon;
For some are like to cough and groan
Ere it be full midnight.
Haul the bowline! Now veer the sheet;
Cook, make ready anon our meat!
Our pylgrymms have no lust to eat:
I pray God give them rest.
Go to the helm! What ho! no neare[r]!
Steward, fellow! a pot of beer!
Ye shall have, Sir, with good cheer,
Anon all of the best.
_Y-howe! Trussa!_ Haul in the brailes!
Thou haulest not! By God, thou failes[t]
O see how well our good ship sails!
And thus they say among.
* * * * *
Thys meane'whyle the pylgrymms lie,
And have their bowls all fast them by,
And cry after hot malvesy--
'Their health for to restore.'
* * * * *
Some lay their bookys on their knee,
And read so long they cannot see.
'Alas! mine head will split in three!'
Thus sayeth one poor wight.
* * * * *
A sack of straw were there right good;
For some must lay them in their hood:
I had as lief be in the wood,
Without or meat or drink!
For when that we shall go to bed,
The pump is nigh our beddes head:
A man he were as good be dead
As smell thereof the stynke!
* * * * *
(Notes:
Howe--hissa! - is still used aboard deepwater-men as Ho--hissa! instead of Ho--hoist away! What ho, mate!- is also known afloat, though dying out. Y-howe! taylia! - is Yo--ho! tally! or Tally and belay! - which means hauling aft and making fast the sheet of a mainsailor foresail. What ho! no nearer!- is What ho! no higher now. But old salts remember no nearer! and it may be still extant. Seasickness
seems to have been the same as ever--so was the desperate effort to
pretend one was not really feeling it:
And cry after hot malvesy--
'Their health for to restore.'
[Notes From: Elizabethan Sea Dogs By William Wood (1918:Yale)]