There is a really big and wonderful, thriving community
of shanty and folk singers out there,
but unless you already know that they're there,
you'd never discover them in the first place.
We've been singing "Wellerman" for kind of,
quite a few years now, and obviously we love it,
we've put it in most of our gigs,
and people seem to enjoy it,
but we weren't really aware that that was gonna be
the one that was gonna take off.
The song's been around since the early 19th century.
I don't know about the evolution of it, obviously,
it's a folk song that's been passed through word of mouth
and, I'm assuming ink and paper,
for years and years and years.
We released a video of us playing the game
'Sea of Thieves' back in August 2019,
and singing the song at other random players in the game
to kind of get their reactions and so on.
It's pretty much just like friendly trolling,
in a way, 'cause we weren't doing any work on the ship,
we were just singing.
And that video starts popping up every few months.
And so, like, it got shared around on Tumblr,
and iFunny, and Reddit, and a few other places like that.
And every single time, it seemed to go higher and higher.
I think we like the fact that
because it's a traditional song, as well,
there's a certain amount of, you know, obviously,
there are versions done very well, but it is a trad.
It's something that everybody's been singing
for ages, so it's kinda nice to have,
and I think if it was just our song,
one that we wrote, that had got to that point,
I don't think there would be
so much of a nice, communal feel to it.
We've got songs with instruments,
songs we've tried to gear
slightly more towards the mainstream,
and then it's a really traditional one
that gets there in the end.
The name Billy o' Tea is,
there's been a lot of contention about it,
people interested in the song
and looking up the history.
The song comes from the Weller Brothers' Company,
who were active in the 1830s and '40s in New Zealand.
But as far as anyone can tell,
they never had a ship called the Billy o' Tea,
or the Billy of Tea under their employ.
So it's possible that it was originally
a different name, and it got changed over the years,
or maybe someone inserted
their own favorite boat into the song.
It's one of those things,
we might never know exactly where this name comes from.
There is a slang, I believe, Australian slang,
for Billy being a teapot.
So, I've definitely heard that theory as well,
that Billy o' Tea is kinda like a slang name
for the ship that brings tea, basically.
Tonguing, it refers to the tonguers,
who were the people who had the lovely job of
butchering a whale after it had been killed
and dragged onshore.
So, basically, they'd cut out everything
except for the tongue.
It's kind of unfortunate, in some ways,
that this is the song that's wound up as well,
because whaling definitely isn't a good thing,
but it is so damn catchy.
And some of the songs that come out of, like, that job
and the work and everything,
'cause it was, as much as it's an awful thing,
it was also awful for the people doing it.
Like, as far as bad jobs go,
it's definitely up there as one of the worst things
you could've ever done.
So the songs of, kind of,
hardship and toil and everything that came out of it,
there's some really powerful stuff there.
A right whale is a specific type of whale,
seemingly also known as a black whale,
three species of large baleen whales.
Using kind of, you know, nautical speak,
but "a right whale bore," so,
"a right whale appeared" would be kinda another way
to describe it, I guess.
You'd harpoon the whale,
and the whale would be dragging the boat along,
and you'd use that to tire it out.
I think one of the phrases they used
is a "Nantucket sleigh ride,"
like a sleigh tied to a whale and just being dragged along,
trying to wear it out and make sure
it doesn't dive below and, you know,
ruin your ship or escape.
It's not a job that's done quickly.
Once you've actually been out there at sea
for a long time and tracked down the whale and whatnot,
and then you start the hunting process,
which again, can take days.
There's definitely, like, that loyalty thing of,
"Even though this is dangerous,
we've got to get this done."
And again, it's that struggle through hardship
and, kind of, pulling together part of it
that, again, even though it's not
a pleasant topic by any means,
it's something that, you know,
you pull together with the crew
and you look to leadership, and stuff like that,
to do right by you,
and, yeah, in those tough times.
They would've had multiple boats
chasing a whale, and you know,
as Dave already mentioned,
the whale could either drag a boat under
or turn around and smash the boat with its tail.
So, if you were out in the middle of the ocean
and you're trying to haul this whale in,
you know, you keep losing men and you keep losing boats
and the captain's still driving you forward,
it's dedication.
You might not agree with whaling,
but you can get behind that,
"Come on, let's get this done!"
I really like the idea that there is still a ship
somewhere being dragged around by a whale,
and not only that, there are still a company
sending somebody every week or two, to just go,
"Is everyone alright?
Do you need some rum?
Do you need some sugar?
No, you're good?
Still going after that whale, yeah?
Alight, see you next week,"
and then buggering off.
So I think my favorite of all the TikTok stuff
has to be the two guys in the car, for sure,
because, as I say, it does tell that journey
of going from hearing it for the first time
and thinking it's just utterly bonkers
through the, "Okay, this is all right,"
to, "Actually, I get this now,"
and suddenly it's so cool.
And that is the exact journey that we want
people to go through when they hear this stuff,
when they realize, actually,
this isn't just some old fuddy-duddy nonsense
that people sing,
but actually it's still really good and really cool,
and makes you want to join in and be part of something.
I think it's fine to call songs like "Wellerman"
a sea shanty, in that the genre has kind of expanded
to include traditional sea songs and things that capture
the nature and the heart of sea shanties,
which is joining together to get a job done
and work with your fellow sailors.