Navigation By Sea Shanty

Sea shanties originated as work songs, designed to be upbeat and repetitive to help workers synchronise mundane tasks. John Hasselgren of the RIN’s Small Craft Group explores the navigation-al elements of the popular sea shanty “Spanish Ladies”. Members can read the full article in the Navigation News archive here. This article was first published in the May/June 2023 edition of Nav news.

Check out the Longest Johns (who went viral with Wellerman on TikTok during the COVID lockdown) version of Spanish Ladies in the video attached.

Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish Ladies,
Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain
For we’ve received orders to sail for old England
And we may never see you fair ladies again.

In some versions the last line is given as, “And hope someday soon to see you again.”

The chorus is: 
We’ll rant and we’ll roar like true British sailors,
Well rant and we’ll roar across the salt seas,
Until we strike soundings in the Channel of old England
From Ushant to Scillies ‘tis thirty four leagues.

Like all sea shanties the words tend to vary and I have seen versions where the distance between Ushant (or Ouessant to give it its French name) and Scilly (which I am informed is the correct spelling) is thirty five leagues.

Unlike most sea shanties, which come from merchant sailing ships, this one was originated in the Royal Navy. The oldest version is thought to appear in the logbook of HMS Nellie in 1794. This would suggest it dates from the Napoleonic era when the Royal Navy was carrying supplies to Spain to help with its war against revolutionary France. This must have been one of the few times when England wasn’t at war with Spain.

But what has this to do with navigation? Let’s have a look....

Signed in members can read the rest of the article in the May/June 2023 edition of Navigation News found in the online archive here