John Sampson – The Seven Seas Shanty Book (1927)

John Sampson – The Seven Seas Shanty Book

It was a really hard case for me to buy John Sampson – The Seven Seas Shanty Book shanty collection, and it is because every time when I typed “The Seven Seas” part of the title in search engines, the display tones of results relates to the biggest book of Stan Hugill’s book “Shanties From The Seven Seas. Paradoxically, I know about this book from a reference list placed in Stan Hugill’s book. This book is really a treasure, for any shanty enthusiasts. The book contains forty-two shanties and sea songs.

The really great thing about this book is that each song contains a fair amount of verses (most books from this time, have only a few verses, and that’s it), For example, shanty “Shenandoah” contains seven verses. It is worth noting each song has a very nice description, to give us some information about the type of shanty or time where comes from, and so on. Overall, a quite rare position, but worth any money to have it.

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 Seven Seas Shanty Book

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

Richard Runciman Terry – The Shanty Book Part 2 (1926)

Alex Anderson – Windjammer Yarns (1923)

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 was built on a really great experience of an author. It contains thirty shanties along with sheet music for voice and pianoforte. 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 content of the descriptions contains 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

A perfect, 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 amazing thing about this collection is that it does not have an author. This book is a collection of the shanties, printed by concern Shell. Although we know the editor of the book, Hereward King. A very interesting collection; mentioned by Stan Hugill in his “Shanties From The Seven Seas” has several unique versions of popular shanties. As mentioned previously, the shanties printed in this book i.e versions of those shanties, you can not find anywhere else.

Of course; the unique versions described may only be of interest; to someone who is interested in the footnotes and materials mentioned by Stan Hugill. What is also worth mentioning is the absolutely spectacular graphics of this book; each illustration is a work of art and the print quality is second to none. Of course, if any of you are interested in any of the texts, please contact me privately; I would be glad 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 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. Noticible, 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 the S. Taylor Harris – Six Sea Shanties 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 even from the title itself, about this very rare and hard-to-get position. So we have the name of the shantymen, Mr. S. M. Woodward, we have the author, and the type of instrument for which the score was arranged.
Returning to the item, it contains six 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 really well-known and popular shanty “hullabaloo-balay”, Polish title ” halabaluby lej “. The copy I have was the last copy available in the entire virtual world. Finally, I would like to add, what I have already done in several of my previous reviews, that I am ready to share selected fragments or shanties placed inside for those who wish (If so, please contact me on the messenger).

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 really precious for shanty lovers, aside from on great description of real-life on a sailing ship, from an officer’s perspective, contains one of the oldest collections of shanties. Robert C. Adams – On Board is one of the must-haves for anyone who wants seriously gain real knowledge about life on board, and shanties. One of the curiosities is the text of the shanties “Tommy’s Gone To Hilo”, apparently, this book is proof that the title “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.

A 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 shanties and the times of iron people on wooden ships. To all who are interested in this book; I also recommend reading another Harlow’s 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”, a huge collection of them.

Finally; it is worth adding that many of the greatest shanties singers point to both Harlow’s books; as one of the main sources of their repertoire and knowledge about shanties. Simon Spalding talks about this book “my secret weapon”; a few shanties from this book you can find on the spectacular album “Round The Capstan”; recorded with the shanty band Cztery Refy; which together with the band Stare Dzwony are definitely 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 of all; 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 lovers of shanties and the times of iron people on wooden ships. You can put this book in a 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 compliment 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 really spectacular collection of the shanties. Interesting enough is the fact that an author talking about the sailors is 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 have to understand how misunderstood and underestimated is the importance of the original sources; and how priceless is to read shanty collections like this one.

This is absolutely essential to preserve the authentic character of those songs. This is one of the earliest collections which contains 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 original, printed, about 80 years before Stan Hugill’s “Shanties From The Seven Seas”. For all maritime and merchant fleet culture lovers; and most important for shanty enthusiasts; this is a wonder that screams to be readded. If anyone wants to read this article and does not have access; please contact me through Messanger, 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)