| Contents |
Introduction -- English and American "chanties," or, working songs of the sea -- Gaelic boat songs and Scotch sea songs -- Keelmen's and fishermen's songs, and songs of the press gang on Tyneside -- Canadian boat songs -- French sailors' and boatmen's songs -- Italian sailors', Neapolitan fishermen's, and Venetian gondoliers' songs -- Scandinavian sea songs -- German sailors' songs -- Dutch sailors' and herring-fishers' songs -- Russian sailors' songs -- Greek songs -- Japanese sailors' songs -- Nile boatmen's chants -- Indian water-songs -- From China to Peru -- Superstitions, customs, and water-legends of the sea, rivers, and lakes. |
| Abstract |
Fresh as the breezes of that ocean to which they owe their inspiration, the "chanties" and songs here collected come as a most interesting and unique contribution to the literature of the sea. For this volume contains no mere study-compilation of more or less authentic sea ditties, mingled with the nautical effusions of landsmen. It is original in its conception and execution. With one or two trifling exceptions, it is a collection of what may be styled "the genuine article"--not the creation of landsmen written for or about sailors, but the actual "working songs" of the sea that were in use at the time. Still further, this book contains not merely the ditties of Jack Tars, but a selection of the sea-songs of nearly all maritime nations, translated and ably commented on, from a literary, musical, and nautical point of view, together with a good deal of interesting information regarding them. |
