A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty is a genre of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large merchant sailing vessels. The term "shanty" most accurately refers to a specific style of work song belonging to this historical repertoire. However, in recent, popular usage, the scope of its definition is sometimes expanded to admit a wider range of repertoire and characteristics, or to refer to a "maritime work song" in general. Shanties were sung by sailors or workers onboard vessels while they remain immersed in their daily work. The original purpose of the sea shanty was to give mundane chores a semblance of pleasure and merriment, and to combat the monotonous nature of the demanding marine requirements. Shanties were a heterogeneous group of songs, with diverse origins. Some came to sea from shore, and we can trace individual shanties back to African American work songs and spirituals, theater songs of vaudeville and the music-hall, and even much older British songs and ballads. Others were pretty clearly written by sailors at sea. Shanties were ‘work songs’, in essence, whose steady beat helped unite a shipload of sailors in one rhythm, making lighter work of arduous chores. They also likely helped provide a musical tonic, and a distraction from the repetitive nature of the work. There were three principal types of shanties: short-haul, or short-drag, shanties, which were simple songs sung when only a few pulls were needed; halyard shanties, for jobs such as hoisting sail, in which a pull-and-relax rhythm was required; and windlass, or capstan, shanties, which synchronized footsteps in jobs such as hoisting anchor.