Search - John Roberts & Tony Barrand :: Across the Western Ocean

The songs sung on board the packet ships can be roughly divided into the categories of shanty and forebitter. The shanty was a work song used exclusively to provide the rhythm for the crew working on deck or up in the rigging. Some jobs were long, slow and arduous but maintained an even rhythm. Here the shantyman would set the tempo with a fairly long shanty, usually telling a coherent story. The shantyman's art was a delicate one; he had to draw the line between the pace the men wanted to work and the speed the mate required. The forebitters were sung in a more relaxed atmosphere, in off-duty hours in the crew's cramped quarters beneath the forecastle head. These were often popular ballads from the shore, and many would have been accompanied with fiddle, banjo or other portable instruments. This recording includes both kinds of song, though the shanties are not sung exactly as they would have been rendered on deck. The sets have been chosen as both typical of the period and relevant to the conditions of the time.