Get in Losers, We’re Singing Sea Shanties - The Cut

Apparently we’re doing sea shanties now.

Sea shanties are work songs historically sung aboard tall ships, merchant ships, whaling ships — old-timey vessels whose operation hinges on the simultaneous motions of many sailor bods.

Since then, “Wellerman,” a shanty apparently inspired by the Weller Brothers’ ships that sailed between Australia and New Zealand in the 1800s, has become particularly popular, for whatever reason.

Sea Shanty TikTok is incredible 😍 pic.twitter.com/HsHQ2l05hy!

The biggest compilation I’ve seen so far of the Wellerman sea shanty?

Indescribably jealous that the TikTok equivalent of a quote tweet is to join a sea shanty pic.twitter.com/S51sxn6rhq!

So I made my debut on Sea Shanty TikTok 😅.

I joined sea shanty TikTok pic.twitter.com/2xg47xqzA4!

Probably the most popular shanty content to have landed online since all of this began, though, is this sequence from TikTok user strong_promises, who recorded what happened when he recently relinquished control of the aux cord during a car ride.

His emotional trajectory — skepticism that looks almost like annoyance, confused but gentle amusement, acquiescence, absolute enthusiasm — accurately mirrors what many shanty newbs are feeling in this moment!

As Vulture’s resident shanty expert, Kathryn VanArendonk, points out, sea shanties are “resiliently uncool.

Since you all like Sea Shanty TikTok, have another