What are Shanties
Around the turn of the century steamships entered service. They replace more and more sail ships. With the demise of these sail ships, also called tall ships, the demise of the so called shanties set in. These rhythmic working songs where sung during e.g. the raising or trimming of the sails, during the raising of the anchor and during the hard and monotonous work on the pumps.
There are more than one explanations about the word "Shanty". One of those says it is a degeneration of the English word "chant", this means something like singing, a definition for negro songs. An other explanation says that it is a degeneration of the France word "chanter". The france speaking negro-ship workman in New-Orleans used to pronounce this as "chantez".
Apart from working songs are also ballads sung. These ballades describe the hard life on board the tall ships, about the arbitrariness by the officers, about the good or bad properties of the ship or about the emotional links with the shore. Some of these ballads started life as working songs by wood-cutters or gold diggers. Others were sung by negroes loading and unloading cargo.
In general we can say that shanties are those songs that support the work. The rhythm of these songs is important.
The rest, mostly melancholy songs (fore-bitters), can be described as sea songs.
Both categories give a clear picture of life on board the international sailing fleet.