About our crew

Based on the banks of the River Orwell in Ipswich, Suffolk, we are a friendly, growing crew of men and women who love to sing traditional sea shanties and songs of the of sea and our priority is to enjoy ourselves and to entertain our audiences. We welcome anyone and everyone to join us at our informal shanty sessions at the Steamboat Tavern Ipswich.

We give our time for free to support Festivals or charity fundraising events.  We are also available to sing at private functions – all we ask in return is a reasonable donation to support our chosen charity.  

Our story

In Sept 2022, with the Covid restrictions behind us, our skipper Gareth, was inspired to start a sea shanty group, as a way to get men together to have fun making music and making friends.

Sea Shanties are fun to sing, they have easy melodies, repeated choruses which are easy to learn, and always sung at the top your voice so it easy to hide if you are not used to singing in a group!

The first monthly meetings were held in the upstairs room of a quirky pub in Ipswich with 5 or 6 men. It was hard work at first as we didn’t know any sea shanties! Word got around, and a few more joined us, including a lady who wanted to join. How could we refuse! Our, now mixed shanty crew moved to a different venue, the Steamboat Tavern on the waterfront in Ipswich where we still meet.
Almost a year to the day we started, we had our first performance at a folk club held in a local community centre. We were by then officially The Orwellermen, and 11 members sang a 15 minute set which was very well received.

We now meet on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month and are in demand. we perform about once per month at various local pubs and clubs and have also busked at the famous Harwich Sea Shanty Festival.

2025 will be a big year for us as we are performing at the International Sea Shanty festival in Falmouth 13th – 15th June and at Harwich Sea Shanty Festival 10th – 12th October. For further details on our gigs see our gigs page

Follow our progress on our cycle ride to the International Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival our facebook page