By Isabella Kwai Nathan Evans had no idea when he uploaded a cover of “The Wellerman,” a whaling song with a shanty beat, that it would help touch off, well, a sea shanty tidal wave.

“Wellerman” (Sea Shanty) is a folk song about a whaling ship named the Billy o’ Tea. It talks about the crew waiting for a “Wellerman” to bring them supplies, showing their struggles and ...

It's easy to see why "Soon May the Wellerman ... sing a sea shanty together, virtually What was left of their greedy, invasive, abusive, whale-slaughtering enterprise? Merely a song, invented ...

They’d supply whaling stations around New Zealand with the goods they needed, like tea and rum, as the lyrics ... but The Wellerman is not strictly a shanty, just a song sung at sea.