Sea Shanty Chords
Work songs of the tall ships — call-and-response tunes built to keep a crew pulling together. Every shanty here is traditional and public-domain. Open any song for its chords over lyrics, fretboard diagrams, key, tempo, and source attribution.
Shanties were made for group singing over simple harmony — Drunken Sailor needs just Dm and C, start to finish.
Sea shanties with chords
Songs to haul by
Shanties were work songs. A shantyman sang the lines and the crew answered in chorus, so that a gang of sailors pulled together on the beat, whether they were hoisting a sail, walking the anchor up around the capstan or working the pumps. Blow the Man Down is said to have been sung hauling halyards. Leave Her Johnny was most often sung at the pumps, usually on the last round of pumping the ship dry before the crew left her at the end of a voyage. Spanish Ladies is a Royal Navy song about a voyage home from Spain, and it predates the shanty.
Shanties were sung without instruments, since the singers' hands were busy, so the guitar is a late arrival and does best by keeping time under the voices. Drunken Sailor is a "stamp and go" shanty in the Dorian mode, and the chart uses just Dm and C: alternate them and strum a firm downstroke on every beat. South Australia, Blow the Man Down and Leave Her Johnny are all charted in G, South Australia over G, C and D and the other two over G, C and D7. Spanish Ladies takes Em, C, G and D, and a lighter touch.
The verse belonged to the shantyman and the chorus to everyone, so play lightly under the verse and dig in on the chorus. If the lead voice sits too low, a capo raises the pitch of every string while the shapes stay the same: at the 2nd fret, the Dm and C shapes of Drunken Sailor sound a whole step higher.
Why these songs are free to play
Every entry is strictly public-domain or traditional, source-attributed, and charted as chords — so you can learn, play, and share without any copyright worry.