subs. (nautical).—A singer of CHANTEYS (q.v.).
1887. The Saturday Review, 27 August. A shanty, or, as pedants call it, ‘chanty,’ is a song sung by sailors at their work. The music is ‘to a certain extent traditional,’ the words—which are commonly unfit for ears polite—are traditional likewise. The words and music are divided into two parts—the ‘shanty’ proper, which is delivered by a single voice, with or without a fiddle obligato, and the refrain and chorus, which are sung with much straining and tugging, and with peculiar breaks and strange and melancholy stresses, by a number of men engaged in the actual performance of some piece of bodily labour. The manner is this. We will suppose for instance, that what is wanted is an anchor song. The fugleman takes his stand, fiddle in hand, and strikes up the melody of ‘Away Down Rio.’ Then, everything being ready, he pipes out a single line of the song, and the working party, with a strong pull at the capstan-bars, answers with a long-drawn “Away Down Rio.” He sings a second verse, and this is followed by the full strength of the chorus…. And so on, through stave after stave, till the anchor’s weighed, and, the work being done, the need for song is gone by.
1890. W. E. HENLEY, Views and Reviews, p. 153. He goes down to the docks and loiters among the galiots and brigantines; he hears the melancholy song of the CHANTEY-MAN.
