# Sea Shanties? Pirate I was meant to be???
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-pirate-i-was-meant-to-be/220957
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 25, 2003, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-pirate-i-was-meant-to-be/220957 "2003-12-25T03:24:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@blasphmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blasphmer)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2003, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-pirate-i-was-meant-to-be/220957/1 "2003-12-25T03:24:20Z")
Ok,
Does anyone know a sea shantie that goes:
Something like:
A Pirate I was meant to be
Burn the land and boil the sea
I know this line was in one of the Monkey Island 4-6 series, but I don’t know of the name of the shanty.
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### Author:  [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-pirate-i-was-meant-to-be/220957/2 "2003-12-25T03:44:16Z")
I don’t know if it’s from a shantie or Monkey Island, but the second line is from the theme to Firefly.
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### Author:  [@Dread\_Pirate\_Danno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dread_Pirate_Danno)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2003, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-pirate-i-was-meant-to-be/220957/3 "2003-12-25T05:42:01Z")
Would this be it?
A pirate I was meant to be, trim the sails and roam the seas!
[A Pirate I Was Meant to Be](http://www.worldofmi.com/features/lyrics/index.php?id=6)
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### Author:  [@blasphmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blasphmer)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2003, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-pirate-i-was-meant-to-be/220957/4 "2003-12-25T06:08:41Z")
That could be it. But was there a real shanty with those lyrics?
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### Author:  [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2003, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-pirate-i-was-meant-to-be/220957/5 "2003-12-25T06:30:09Z")
We’ll avoid scurvy if we all an an Orange.
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### Author:  [@Tarrsk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarrsk)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2003, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-pirate-i-was-meant-to-be/220957/6 "2003-12-25T08:02:15Z")
Yeah, that’s it. It’s from _The Curse of Monkey Island,_ and it’s a shanty that the barbershop pirates sing (with your dubious assistance) once they join your crew.
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### Author:  [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2003, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-pirate-i-was-meant-to-be/220957/7 "2003-12-25T16:24:07Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Tarrsk \*
> \*\*Yeah, that’s it. It’s from _The Curse of Monkey Island,_ and it’s a shanty that the barbershop pirates sing (with your dubious assistance) once they join your crew. \*\*
That’s right. It’s an original shanty written for the game. Guybrush’s crew keeps on singing rhymes to whatever he says, until he comes up with the unrhymeable line **HPL** mentioned.
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### Author:  [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2003, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-pirate-i-was-meant-to-be/220957/8 "2003-12-25T20:19:48Z")
I think you’re really confused. Given the sentence structure of “Pirate I was meant to be”, it’s obvious you’re talking to Yoda.
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### Author:  [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2003, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-pirate-i-was-meant-to-be/220957/9 "2003-12-25T20:24:01Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by singular1 \*
> \*\*I think you’re really confused. Given the sentence structure of “Pirate I was meant to be”, it’s obvious you’re talking to Yoda. \*\*
Well, it _was_ made by Lucasfilm…
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### Author:  [@Natroga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Natroga)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2003, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-pirate-i-was-meant-to-be/220957/10 "2003-12-26T13:02:15Z")
Okay, I have played _The Curse of Monkey Island_ at least four times, so why do I have no memory of this part?
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### Author:  [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2003, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-pirate-i-was-meant-to-be/220957/11 "2003-12-26T13:57:12Z")
It’s normally spelled _chantey._
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### Author:  [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2003, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-pirate-i-was-meant-to-be/220957/12 "2003-12-26T14:31:28Z")
At last! A subject I know alot about!
It’s spelled Shantie, Chantie, Shanty, chanty, all kinds of ways. They were work songs for cordinating the efforts of running a sailing ship. The call and response were used to make the men pull the ropes and such all at the same time for instance. There were shanties for pulling up anchor chains, bracing sheets, scrubbing the decks (“holy stoning”) and almost every chore requiring a group working in synch. A good “Shanty-man” was worth 10 other men as the old saying goes. They seem to have as their origin a blend of slave work-songs and Irish work songs.
Pirate Shanties? A hollywood invention I’m afraid.