I was first introduced to this immensely sad sea shanty while playing Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag. The in-game version by was performed by Nils Brown, Sean Dagher, and Clayton Kennedy. I also like the John Krauss rendition.

I was moved by the immediacy with which this particular sea shanty expressed the loneliness of men’s life at sea, and the romantic superstitions that haunted those men. The final verse, the narrator being called backed to duty after such a tragic vision, drives home the lonely sacrifice of those men, which people in the 21st century can barely fathom.

I hope you enjoy this modern adaptation of a classic sea shanty.