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A whaling ship known as the Dolphin left the shores of Warren, R.I., in 1858, never to return. Researchers say they found its wooden planks and timber pieces in Argentina.
A whaling ship left Warren, R.I., in 1858, never to return. Researchers say they found its wooden planks and timber pieces in Argentina.
The earliest sea shanties could be as old as seafaring itself. They tap into the story-sharing impulse of oral literature, which is even older still. Singing is fun, and it lifted the sailors’ spirits, Mr. Smyth said. The songs also offered a common language for multinational crews. “This communitarian aesthetic, it really does go back to a very ancient time,” Mr. Smyth said. “When we’re sitting around the campfire, we’re talking about the hunt. We achieve identity through community, through the underlying beat on the drum.” In these ancient storytelling traditions, everyone kne...