PORT TOWNSEND — Sea shanties will be given a new lease on life on Thursday, as a group of musicians begin a practice of monthly gatherings intended to keep the tradition going.
The inaugural Sea Shanty Song Circle and Sing-Along takes place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St., and will continue on the first Thursday of every month.
Admission is free and the Chandlery will stay open late to serve refreshments, said Mike James, who is one of the event’s organizers.
“Shanties speak to the life before the internal combustion engine,” James said.
“It comes from a time when people did work by hand doing what required muscles and power, and the songs gave them a sense of unity.”
James said that workers on a ship would sing the songs as a way to stay focused on the task, and to build a sense of camaraderie among sailors.
“You would sing the song until the task was done,” he said.
“If you finished the task with three verses to go, you wouldn’t sing those verses.”
James said that shanties also were a way for workers to speak out against abusive bosses.
“Sometimes you could sing what you really felt about your boss,” he said.
“You were doing the work while you were singing so they couldn’t really object as long as you weren’t too insulting.”
In a song circle, the participants gather around and each person is given the chance to choose the next selection.
Many of the songs are call and response and are easily learned, James said.
As a guide, the gathering will use the books left behind by Stephen Lewis, a Port Townsend shanty enthusiast who died last year.
Lewis collected songs all his life, and his wife has allowed use of his books which James called “bibles” of sea lore.
James said he expected sea shanty enthusiasts from throughout the Puget Sound to show up on Thursday “and there will be some pretty powerful voices.”
There is a shanty program at the annual Wooden Boat Festival, and they are sung in call-and-response fashion during the educational programs sponsored by the Schooner Adventuress.
“People who can’t sing can always bellow out a shanty,” said Lee Erickson, who writes a blog about Sea Shanties at singshanties.blogspot.com.
“People who don’t have good voices and never sing will still have a good time when they join in.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
