Shanty Songs

Songs sung by sailors at work, to ensure united action. They are in sets, each of which has a different cadence adapted to the work in hand. Thus, in sheeting topsails, weighing anchor, etc., one of the most popular of the shanty songs runs thus:—

“Iʹm bound away, this very day,

Iʹm bound for the Rio Grandè.

Ho, you, Rio!

Then fare you well, my bonny blue bell,

Iʹm bound for the Rio Grandé.”

(French, chanter, to sing; a sing-song.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.