Sea shanty

In the days when human muscles were the only power source available aboard ship, sea shanties served a practical purpose: the rhythm of the song served to synchronize the movements of the sailors as they toiled at repetitive tasks. They also served a social purpose: singing and listening to songs is pleasant days.

Most shanties are call and response songs, with one voice the shanty man singing the line and the chorus of sailors bellowing the response compares military cadence calls. it alleviates boredom and lightens the burden of hard work, of which there was no shortage on long voyages in those.

Working it as a short-drag or sheet chantey hands on the line would synchronize their pulls with the last syllable of each response. Musically, shanties seem to reflect a variety of sources. The shanty man was a sailor who led the others in singing. He was usually self-appointed. 

A sailor would not generally sign on as a shanty man per se, but took on the role in addition to their other tasks on the ship. Nevertheless, sailors reputed to be good shanty men were valuable and respected. A song is as necessary to sailors as the drum and fife to a soldier.