Jerzy Brzezinski

Richard Runciman Terry – The Shanty Book Part 1 (1921)

Richard Runciman Terry – The Shanty Book Part 1

Richard Runciman Terry – The Shanty Book Part 1 is one of the most recognized shanties collections ever. The first part of this fantastic collection was published in 1921 and built using an author’s great experience. It contains thirty shanties along with sheet music for voice and pianoforte. The introduction and descriptions of shanties contain a huge amount of useful knowledge. This book is one of the many published during the so-called “Grand Hall shanty revival”. The descriptions contain a lot of important information, e.g. names of the seaman from whom the individual songs were obtained. This is a ‘must-have’ for every shanties enthusiast.

Do you want to be more involved?

You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.

Related to The Richard Runciman Terry’s Book

The Shell Book Of Sea Chanties (1952)

Alex Anderson – Windjammer Yarns (1923)

Clifford Beckett – Shanties And Forebitters (1914)

Alex Anderson – Windjammer Yarns (1923)

Alex Anderson – Windjammer Yarns

Alex Anderson – Windjammer Yarns is over two hundred fifty pages documentary report of the life of a sailor employed on sailing ships and steamboats in the 1880s. This is one of the few unique books that help us understand the realities of a sailor’s life. Captain Alex Anderson’s book includes several shanties along with sheet music.

Do you want to be more involved?

You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.

Related to the Windjammer Yarns

Clifford Beckett – Shanties And Forebitters (1914)

Robert C Adams – On Board The Rocket (1879)

S. Taylor Harris – Six Sea Shanties (1925)

The Shell Book Of Sea Chanties (1952)

The Shell Book Of Sea Chanties – by The Shell Petroleum Company Limited (1952)

The first odd thing about this collection is that it does not have an author. This book is a collection of the sea shanties, printed by concern Shell. Only what we can find, is an editor of the book which is Hereward King. It is indeed an interesting collection. The collection is mentioned by Stan Hugill in his “Shanties From The Seven Seas”, and it has several unique versions of popular shanties. As mentioned previously, the shanties printed in this book (i.e. versions of those sea shanties), you can not find anywhere else.

Of course, the unique versions described may only be of interest, to someone interested in the footnotes and materials mentioned by Stan Hugill. What is also worth mentioning is the spectacular graphics of this book. Each illustration is a work of art and the print quality is second to none. Of course, if you are interested in any of the texts, contact me privately, I would be happy to share.

Do you want to be more involved?

You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.

Related to The Shell Book Of Sea Chanties

Clifford Beckett – Shanties And Forebitters (1914)

Frederick Pease Harlow – The making of a sailor (1928)

Frederick Pease Harlow – Chanteying Aboard American Ships (1962)

Clifford Beckett – Shanties And Forebitters (1914)

Shanties And Forebitters

Clifford Beckett – Shanties And Forebitters (1914) is a collection of eight songs. The short introduction contains some interesting information, it is interesting, for example, that some of the sentences from this description sound identical (almost word for word) to the part of the introduction to one of R. R. Terry’s collections, written several years later. Noticeable is that this book is the first place where we can find the word “forebitter”. For Polish fans of shanties and “forebitters”, there are the original lyrics for the song “Chinese Sailor” sung by one of the two most popular shanty bands in Poland, the Old Bells.

Do you want to be more involved?

You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.

Related to Clifford Beckett – Shanties And Forebitters

Robert C Adams – On Board The Rocket (1879)

S. Taylor Harris – Six Sea Shanties (1925)

Harpers Monthly Magazine (1882)

S. Taylor Harris – Six Sea Shanties (1925)

S. Taylor Harris – Six Sea Shanties

The full name of this book is: “Six Sea Shanties music / collected from the singing of SM Woodward and edited by AW Whitehead and S. Taylor Harris; and arranged for solo, unison chorus and pianoforte by S. Taylor Harris; with a foreword by John Goss “. It’s amazing how much we can learn from even the title, of this very rare and hard-to-get position. So we have the name of the shantymen, Mr. S. M. Woodward, the author, and the type of instrument for which the score was arranged.
Returning to the item, it contains six sea shanties, along with sheet music.

The introduction of Taylor Harris – Six Sea Shanties front page is also full of information that may be useful. It is worth mentioning that this item is (or should be) especially valuable for Polish shanty lovers, because here for the first time appeared in print, a well-known and popular shanty “hullabaloo-balay”, Polish title ” halabaluby lej “. The copy I bought, was the last copy available in the entire virtual world.

Do you want to be more involved?

You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.

Related to the Six Sea Shanties

Gibb Schreffler – Boxing The Compass (2018)

The Chamber Journal (1869)

Richard Terry – Shanties With Descants (1921)

Robert C Adams – On Board The Rocket (1879)

Robert C Adams – On Board The Rocket

Robert C. Adams – On Board, The Rocket is precious for shanty lovers, aside from the great description of real life on a sailing ship, from an officer’s perspective. It contains one of the oldest collections of shanties. Robert C. Adams – On Board is the “must have” for anyone who wants to seriously gain real knowledge about life on board, and shanties. One of the curiosities is the text of the sea shanties “Tommy’s Gone To Hilo” This book is proof that the word “Hilo” is out of the question, and the original title is “Tommy’s Gone, A High Low”.

Do you want to be more involved?

You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.

Related to Robert C. Adams – On Board The Rocket

Frederick Pease Harlow – Chanteying Aboard American Ships (1962)

Halina Stefanowska – Rozspiewane Morze (1975)

Jim Mageean – Sail Away (2021)

Frederick Pease Harlow – Chanteying Aboard American Ships (1962)

Big thanks, to my mentor, teacher, and friend from the United States, Simon Spalding.

For recommending and introducing me to Frederick Pease Harlow – Chanteying Aboard American Ships. This book is a real treasure for lovers of sea shanties and the times of ironmen on wooden ships. I also wish to recommend reading another Harlow book: “The Making Of A Sailor”. Both complement each other very well. The first “The Making Of A Sailor” describes works where shanties were used. The second “Chanting on American Ships”, is more like a collection of them.

Finally, it is worth adding that many of the greatest shanties singers point to both Harlow’s books. They are one of the main sources of their repertoire and knowledge about sea shanties. Simon Spalding talks about his book “My Secret Weapon”. A few sea shanties from this book Simon Spalding sang on the album “Round The Capstan”, recorded with the Polish shanty band Cztery Refy. Cztery Refy and Stare Dzwony are the leading bands singing traditional shanties in Poland.

Do you want to be more involved?

You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.

Related to Chanteying Aboard American Ships

Frederick Pease Harlow – The making of a sailor (1928)

Bjorn Landstrom – The Ship (1961)

Cicely Fox Smith – Sea Songs and Ballads 1917 – 1922 (1930)

Frederick Pease Harlow – The making of a sailor (1928)

Frederick Pease Harlow – The making of a sailor

First, I would like to thank my mentor, teacher, and (I dare to say it publicly for the first time) my friend, from the United States, Simon Spalding for recommending and introducing me to Frederick Harlow who wrote this great work. This book is a real treasure for shanty enthusiasts and the times of ironmen on wooden ships. You can put this book in the same row with such works as “The Merchant Vessel” by Nordhoff. or Richard Dana’s “Two Years Before Mast”.

This is simply a sailor’s diary, detailing the life of a sailor, with shanties intertwined in the plot. Real descriptions of the deep sea sailor profession, his life on the sea and onshore. This book is best read together with Frederick Harlow’s second book “Chanteying Aboard American Ships”. Both complement each other perfectly. The first describes works where shanties were used, and the second is a huge collection of them. Finally, it is worth adding that many of the greatest shanty singers point to both Harlow’s books as one of the main sources of their repertoire and knowledge about shanties.

Do you want to be more involved?

You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.

Related to The making of a sailor

Harpers Monthly Magazine (1882)

Jerzy Wadowski – Piesni Spod żagli (1989)

Jim Mageean – Heave Away (2020)

Harpers Monthly Magazine (1882)

Sailor Songs – William L. Alden

In the Harper’s Monthly Magazine from June to November 1882, we can find a spectacular collection of sea shanties. Interestingly enough is the fact that an author talking about the sailors says that the typical “Jack” of the pre-propeller age – the “packeterian”; and the able saman of the clipper-ship fleet – has, however, utterly varnished”, in an article from 1882! Whatever we can think, we need to understand how misunderstood and underestimated the importance of the sources, is and how priceless it is to read shanty collections like this one.

This is essential to preserve the authentic character of those songs. This is one of the earliest collections containing musical notations of the shanties covering around twenty shanties. “Bowline”, “Haul away Joe”, “Good-by My love goodbye”, and much more, we can find in this article. Very close to the original, printed, about 80 years before Stan Hugill’s “Shanties From The Seven Seas”. For all maritime and merchant fleet culture lovers, and most importantly for shanty enthusiasts, this article screams to be read. If anyone wants to read this article and does not have access, please contact me through Messenger, and I will be happy to share images of the whole article.

Do you want to be more involved?

You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.

Related to Harpers Monthly Magazine (1882) – Sailor Songs

Richard Terry – Shanties With Descants (1921)

Jerzy Wadowski – Piesni Spod żagli (1989)

Robert C. Leslie – A Waterbiography (1894)

Richard Runciman Terry – Shanties With Descants (1921)

Richard Runciman Terry – Shanties With Descants – Grand Hall Shanty revival

“Shanties with Descants” – Shanties collected and arranged by SIR RICHARD TERRY. Descants written by MAURICE JACOBSON – set 1(date of publication unknown to me).
Here is the publication, one of the many published during the so-called “Grand Hall shanty revival”, when tenors in beautiful tuxedos and choirs of classical music singers played scenes from “ship decks” on the stages of theaters, where the shantymen sang and the choir sailors in perfect harmony, answered in the chorus. The period of this revival falls in the second and third decades of the 20th century.

In the publication, we find five real deep-sea sailor shanties. The music in the arrangement has a full music notation written for two voices and a pianoforte, each song has a really good number of stanzas. It is worth noting that this is one of the two parts of this publication, unfortunately, I haven’t got the second one yet, so if someone has information on where to get, and buy, or someone has the second part and would like to make a gift for my collection, please contact me.

Do you want to be more involved?

You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.

Related to Shanties With Descants

The Chamber Journal (1869)

Michael Watson – The Powder Monkey (1885)

Simon Spalding – Food At Sea (2014)