ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the types of early modern sea songs and their respective purposes aboard ship, and the latter section will analyse historical performances of music and drama by privateers, merchants, and pirates. Since the medieval era, sailors had become familiar with the language and customs of other countries, absorbing them into their own seaboard life. Sea songs, like oral seafaring tales, were mutable and constantly changing. Sea ballads, generally speaking, differ from the shanty and the anchor song not only in subject matter but also in their musicality. ‘Good Fortune’ is sung from the perspective of an aspiring seaman, perhaps Grenville or any other ambitious explorer encouraged by the lucrative rewards of sea travel. Sea songs were often calls to action: to pull the anchor, to set the sails, or to perform any other required task aboard ship. However, sea songs could also be calls to the sea.
