As waves crash and the wind howls, a great merchant ship is tossed this way and that like a pendulum by a storm in the North Atlantic. Ice-cold saltwater sprays as men raise their calloused hands to tough, weathered ropes. Heave! The Shantyman calls out over the howling gale:
Well I thought I heard the old man say
Well it’s one more pull and then belayWell a hundred years on the eastern shore
Oh yes, Oh!
Oh, a hundred years on the eastern shore
A Hundred years ago![1]
Fast forward 150 years and it is 2021. Millennials and GenZ are stuck at home during lockdown, scrolling through their social media feeds, and #seashanty is trending. This folk genre, work songs sung by labourers on trading ships, has witnessed a revival with countless individuals sharing recordings of traditional shanty songs on social media. The most recent viral sensation, a Scottish postman named Nathan Evans, uploaded a video to TikTok of himself singing “The Wellerman”, a whaling song originating in New Zealand, which became an instant hit. Other TikTok users added harmonisation and accompaniments using the platform’s Duet feature, sending catchy versions of the song worldwide (and Nathan, with his subsequent recording contract and topping international charts, to stardom).
But what is it about this genre of folk song that has had such massive appeal? Some have commented on the sea shanty as a way of lifting the spirits of sailors trapped out at sea, performing gruelling tasks in difficult circumstances, which strikes a chord with people today experiencing the trials of pandemic lockdown. Though this may be true, there is something much deeper and more fundamental to the nature of these songs that deserves exploration.
Work songs have existed since time immemorial. Since humans have lived in communities that required co-ordinated physical work, singing would have served as a great way to pass the time, boost morale and coordinate everyone’s movements. We also find examples of this in the seerah (the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ). During the battle of Khandaq in 5 AH, the Prophet’s community in Madinah sought to ward off an attack of the Makkan Quraysh by digging a huge trench around Madinah. Narrations in Sahih al-Bukhari mention the Prophet ﷺ raising his voice to the words of a qasida (poem) by Abdullah ibn al-Rawaha:
اللَّهُمَّ لَوْلَا أنْتَ ما اهْتَدَيْنَا
ولَا تَصَدَّقْنَا ولَا صَلَّيْنَا
فَأَنْزِلَنْ سَكِينَةً عَلَيْنَا
وثَبِّتِ الأقْدَامَ إنْ لَاقَيْنَا
إنَّ الأُلَى قدْ بَغَوْا عَلَيْنَا
وإنْ أرَادُوا فِتْنَةً أبيْنَا
“O Allah, were it not for you
We would not have been guided
Nor would we have given charity, nor prayed
So bestow tranquillity upon us
And when we meet the enemy
Then make our feet firm
For indeed the enemy has revolted against us
And if they want to afflict us
Then we will oppose their affliction” [2]
The rhyme and rhythm in the original Arabic reflect the nature of the physical labour the poem was accompanying. For ten days the men worked continuously to dig the trench. Another narration describes the call and response of the Prophet ﷺ and his companions. They would sing out:
نحن الذين بايعوا محمدا
على الجهاد ما حيينا أبدا“We are those who have pledged allegiance to Muhammad
That we will strive in Jihad as long as we live.”
To which he ﷺ would reply:
اللهم لا عيش إلا عيش الآخرة
فأكرم الأنصار والمهاجره“O Allah, there is no good except the good of the Hereafter
So confer your blessings upon the Ansar and the Emigrants.”[3]
These sorts of work songs and poems are likely to also have existed in maritime contexts for as long as men have worked at sea. However, the sea shanty refers not to any maritime work song, as is sometimes assumed, but to a unique subgenre with specific characteristics. The shanty developed and flourished in the transatlantic merchant trade of the early 1800s, waning towards in the latter half of the century as ships began to be powered by steam. To co-ordinate the physical movements of hoisting sails, draining water and lowering the anchor, a lead singer, the Shantyman, would sing out calling lines of a shanty song, to which the sailors would respond while moving in unison. This style came about due to the influence of sailors from North America aboard British vessels, and a closer inspection reveals that the true roots of the sea shanty can be traced back to the work songs, chanteys, of black slaves brought to work American plantations during the transatlantic slave trade.[4] Slaves would sing while undertaking various tasks, and such was the efficacy of these songs in boosting morale and productivity that not only was the work song adapted by sailors for maritime work, but ports for the export of products like cotton became “shantymarts” where sailors and labourers of different cultural backgrounds could trade their songs.[5]
The key features of the shanty brought about by this mixing of the Irish and Black Atlantic, and that distinguish the shanty from other maritime work songs, include the typical call and response pattern, designed to synchronise physical movements (“The Wellerman”, then, is not technically a sea shanty but a whaling ballad).[6] This call and response can be traced even further back by examining the musical cultures of the slaves taken to America during the Middle Passage from their homelands in central and West Africa. As has been demonstrated by Professor Sylviane Diouf, the musical cultures of West African Sufi traditions played a significant role in the development of slave songs in the southern plantations, and the subsequent birth of the blues.[7] Sea shanties, then, present not a uniquely British phenomenon, but are the forged ornaments of a melting pot at the meeting place of continents.
The surging popularity of the sea shanty this year is indicative of a deeper cultural longing in society. While locked down at home, people are realising, perhaps some for the first time, the importance of community and connection, of shared experiences and traditions. While some may hear a sea shanty and feel a wave of nostalgia for a folk British past, the fact that the genre traces its roots back to a diverse mix of cultures is indicative of the fact that we are all connected. We are all part of the same human story and our cultural heritage is ultimately a shared one. The prevailing monoculture, it seems, is incapable of tapping into the soul’s need time-tested tales, stories and songs, that speak of profound labour, physical struggle, camaraderie, love, longing and redemption.
When we speak of nostalgia, a sentimental longing for times past, there are differing levels of connection to the past. One may have strong memories of a childhood home, or happy days prior to the terrors of war. Yet with sea shanties there is a nostalgia for something we have not personally experienced, something that speaks to the universal truths of human experience or a cultural heritage we long to reconnect with and to preserve. This powerful feeling is one that should be harnessed, and not at simply a superficial worldly level. Rather, the ultimate nostalgia to which we hold is at the level of the fitra, the natural human disposition, which reflects the true origin of the soul in another-worldly realm. The longing we have for this profound spiritual past, the time in which we took the covenant of Alast, is the ultimate nostalgia. The divine breezes of light and truth and the deepest feelings of spiritual longing are the truest forms of nostalgia that we should exert our efforts to preserve. What traditions and feelings do we proactively choose to pass on to the next generation? What are the themes and ideas that we choose to venerate and celebrate, sharing them with our children in the songs we choose to sing with them? What better way to live a life in congruence with our ultimate purpose, a life of peace in alignment with the fitra, but that we make the nostalgia for our childhoods synchronous with the ultimate nostalgia of a return to our true spiritual state with Allah. He calls upon us, and we respond – Labbayk Allahumma Labbayk.
[1] Traditional Shanty song, A Hundred Years Ago
[2] Sahih al-Bukhari 4106, translation by the author
[3] Sahih al-Bukhari 2961, translation by the author
[4] https://aaregistry.org/story/chanteys-worksongs-with-roots-from-africa/
[5] Hugill, Shanties from the Seven Seas, p. 17
[6] https://www.insider.com/sea-shanty-tiktok-the-wellerman-isnt-actually-a-sea-shanty-2021-1
[7] https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/what-islam-gave-the-blues