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Wellerman craze has hit: when Nathan Evans (@nathanevanss), a Scottish singer, uploaded a video of himself singing the start of an old sea shanty, he had no clue how viral it would become. But soon after, the duets came: @ , @apsloan01 , @, and @jonnystewartbass rounded out his contribution to create a melodious rendition of “Soon May the Wellerman Come“ that took the internet by storm. It's not hard to see why. The harmonies (“gentle thiccness,“ as singer Jonny Stewart referred to it) combined to capture the attention of millions across the world. But they're hardly the only ones making videos like this. Online communities have sprung up around the hashtags #shantytok and #seashantytok (on TikTok) and /r/seashanties (on Reddit) to celebrate, sing, and meme the centuries-old genre of folk song. Across the seven seas, TikTokers use the duet feature to collaborate and build off of others' shanties. We trace the history of sea shanties: from the Library of Congress to shanty coll
