Long before modern instant communication, and even before the days of highways and railroads, ships and waterways connected communities with each other. These waterborne connections spanned distances as near as neighboring towns on the opposite sides of a river, and as far as nations on opposite sides of the ocean. As sailors traveled from one port to another, they brought their songs with them and learned new ones from the people they met, spreading maritime folklore and traditions across the world.

The songs on this playlist come from the English-speaking maritime world, with origins in the United States, the Bahamas, Canada, Ireland, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and the United Kingdom. The ports, ships, and figures mentioned within take us even farther afield, from New York City and Liverpool to Honolulu, the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Malabar Coast, and the North Pole. The lyrics commemorate shipwrecks and storms, famous figures from maritime history, the indignities of shipboard life, the loneliness of being far from loved ones, the follies of sailors in port, and the joys of being homeward bound.

These are the songs of whalers, fishermen, tugboat sailors, shipyard workers, coast guardsmen, stevedores, packet ship sailors, and naval seamen, as well as singer-songwriters and broadside balladeers who may never have set foot on ships. The performers are medicine-show troubadours, folk revivalists, Irish pub singers, maritime museum employees, and sailors who lived the experiences in their songs. Some are true sea shanties—work songs that set the rhythms for maritime labor—and others are songs that would have been enjoyed during sailors’ leisure time at sea and ashore. Some are old traditional songs, dating to the 18th century and earlier, and some were written by the performers recorded here. All tell us something about the seafaring cultures from which they came.