Mariners Away
This event is now taking place in the theatre due to high demand for tickets.
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In the old days of wooden sailing ships, sailors sang sea-shanties as they hauled ropes and weighed anchors, the rhythm of the singing supporting their work.
These were not high art songs elegant with the poetry of the sea. Far from it! These were all-hands-on-deck, rough-jack-tar, drill-and-discipline songs, vigorous enough to synchronise the hard physical labour of sailors out in rough seas or loading cargo under blistering sun. Steam-powered ships and machine winches silenced the traditional working songs long ago, but sea-shanties still have the power to thrill the blood.
Sea shanty group Mariners Away from South Zeal was formed fourteen years ago, long before the current global craze for sea-shanties. Their name comes from the Mariners’ Way, a fabled ancient route used by sailors to travel between the ports of Bideford on the North Devon coast, and Dartmouth on the South Devon coast. In coincidental kinship with the historical sailors, Mariners Away rehearse at The King’s Arms in the village of South Zeal. The pub is believed to have been one of the hostelries on the old route.