Sea Shanties and OWs

Captain W. B. Whall was a chorister at MCS from 1854-1861, and authored Ships, Sea Songs and Shanties, preserving much of the sea shanty folklore tradition for posterity.

When his voice broke at 14 he went to sea, becoming a Master Mariner and Nautical Surveyor, and was also an author in his spare time. He produced books on seamanship and navigation, along with a critique of the way Shakespeare used nautical terms. He wrote for several magazines and it was from these that his compilation of sea shanties was born.

In 1901 he wrote ‘School and Sea Days’, an autobiography of his life to that point, which provides much insight into life at MCS at that time. He wrote it under the pseudonym “Alan Oscar”, the name by which he penned fictional adventure short stories (which were all the rage at the time) for magazines and several novels.

Copies of Ships, Sea Songs and Shanties are widely available on-line, including electronic versions.