these sea shanties
I actually read a book about nantucket whaling, specifically the whaleship called the Essex. It was rammed by a whale and left them on rowboats with makeshift sails 3,000 miles west of south america, where the offshore grounds with more sperm whales were. that story would later inspire herman melville to write the novel moby dick (and that was at first a commercial failure and was out of print by the time the author died). only a few survived
The book didn’t specifically cover sea shanties, but they did cover how helmsman Thomas Chappel burned down an entire galapagos island without consequence
Then called Charles Island, now titled Floreana Island, they were hunting tortoises around 1820, about a decade before Darwin visited. Chappel was the prankster of the crew, and he decided to light a small fire as a joke, in the height of the dry season. It burned out out of control, and by the time the crew had all gotten back to the Essex, the entire island was burning. It killed thousands and thousands of animals and even drove a few species to extinction.
everyone was upset, but Chappel didn’t admit to it until the whale fucked up their ship. by then they had a bigger thing to worry about: survival.
Book: In the Heart of the Sea
(not providing a pdf, check it out at the library or buy it if you want to. it’s a great read)
Also it’s been 200 years right? the island still hasn’t recovered