HMS Shoreham
Shadow Ships
Voices of Shoreham today - The Salty Mares. Transcription and photographs below.
HMS Shoreham 1693
Frigate - warship
Built in Shoreham-by-Sea by Thomas Ellis. A proud namesake of the town it was built in, which went on to fight in famous battles, and defeat pirates. With 32 cannons over two decks the ship has a varied and full history. A year after it was built it was part of the Battle of Camaret Bay, an intense sea battle against France, where fireships were used. The Battle of Camaret Bay was an Allied attempt to land in Brittany and seize Brest, but the huge English and Dutch invading forces were crushed by the small defensive forces of France before it could even begin.
Over the years HMS Shoreham had many battles with privateers (pirates) and managed to take four pirate ships in its lifetime. One huge 10-hour battle occurred in Virginia, America, where the governor of Virginia came aboard to aid the battle and wrote:
“The pyrate immediately hoisted a Red Jack ensign and a broad pennant and returned my thanks” .
Thank you to Brian Lavery and his research which helped us refine the details and look of HMS Shoreham from sails to bow sprit. We also recommend taking a look at the incredible research of Shorehambysea.com for further details.
Shadow Ships
A celebration of the ships and boats which have been built in, or been important to Shoreham through time. Each ship would have once sailed past Coronation Green. They are an ode to the rich history of shipbuilding in Shoreham and the importance of ships and boats in a town where the river runs straight through it and so on to the sea.
Shadow Ships is a series of permanent sculptures in Shoreham by Sea, by Dawn Parsonage and Peter Hudson of Light Space Color or Adur District Council using Section 106 development fund.
The ships where illustrated by Eleanor Taylor
Voices of Shoreham today - Salty Mares
Each Shadow ship is linked to voices of Shoreham in 2026. Although the people and the ships might be years and lives apart, they both share the same river and the same sea.
(Singing):
When I was a little lass me mother always told me,
Away, haul away, we’ll haul away, Joe!
That if I didn’t kiss the boys me lips would grow a moldy,
Away, haul away, we’ll haul away, Joe!
Away, hey, haul away, we’ll haul away together,
Away, haul away, we’ll haul away, Joe!
Away, hey, haul away, we’re bound for better weather,
Away, haul away, we’ll haul away, Joe!
Kathy: So I’m Kathy, Kathy Cockles. And the Salty Mares, I guess it was for me, it was born out of wanting to to do something a little bit different, to sing with with other women predominantly, that was that was the idea. And I guess to to challenge the norm perhaps, but yeah, just to think all right girls can get up there and do it too.
Voice 2: I covered a local singing group for a friend and Kathy and Alfie were part of that group. And we got chatting at the end and realized we all loved singing shanties and had a shared desire to form a group and Kathy rounded us up. And I, she knew that I was able to kind of share songs, I run a local singing group that’s for mums and their babies and also do other community singing events. And um, my husband also sings in a male shanty group, the Wellington Wailers, which you’ve probably heard of.
Voice 3: Yeah.
Voice 2: Indeed.
Voice 3: Yeah.
Voice 2: Um and yeah and she kind of got us together and and I started by sharing some songs and we’ve all kind of just mucked in and everyone’s been bringing songs to share and yeah it’s been great.
Voice 3: It just made me think, we sang on Coronation Green, so how lovely is that? Do you remember the that gig we had?
Voice 2: Very, yes, yes.
Voice 1: Yeah, it was, it was great.
Voice 3: We were busking!
Voice 1: Yes, busking!
Voice 3: Before last. So yeah, we we sang there and it just feels really fitting now thinking of your gorgeous sculptures. We did the busking and then we watched the bathtub race go by and then we went and sang in the yacht club overlooking the sea again. So, yeah, and it’s just been a lot of fun. It’s really good fun because it’s not the shanties are such good fun to sing and they’re also rich in history and we’ve adapted them a bit to our own group to be more maybe more female focused. And we’ve had some a little few naughty shanties, which Jen has taught us, which go down very well with some of the pubs.
Voice 1: They’re a favourite.
Voice 3: So we get yeah we get quite a lot of calls for those now. People actually, you know, yell out “Sing Twiddles!”. So it’s it’s been really nice to see how it’s all grown and how we’ve all been able to kind of grow and support each other as well.
Voice 2: And shanties from the female perspective.
Voice 3: Yeah, shanties from the ladies’ view.
Voice 1: Yeah. I mean we do some great harmonies, that’s what I really love. Hearing the harmonies when we get them right is just oh, makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck, doesn’t it? It’s fantastic.
Voice 2: No way.
Voice 1: Um and I think some of the the songs, the one I’m thinking of particularly it’s it’s not local to here, when I think of Sugar in the Hold, you know, and the origins of that, of course, you know, the that date back for however very sadly to the slavery period of time. And and I think we’re very mindful certainly when we sing songs that are are rich in history and and mean something now because you know of what they meant meant back then. And I think you have a responsibility to…
Voice 3: Respect?
Voice 1: To respect, yeah, thanks.
Voice 3: And carry on, isn’t it? Keep it alive.
Voice 1: And carry on, keep it alive.
Voice 3: Yeah.
Voice 1: Yes, and respecting yeah what they’ve written and although yeah some of the words are tweaked a little bit that obviously the main the main core of why that person wrote it in the first place it it this it feels like a duty to um, yeah, keeping it alive and passing it on.
Voice 3: I mean I think the most probably the most famous sea shanty maybe is Drunken Sailor, which you know we sang early doors but…
Voice 2: That was our first one.
Voice 3: That was our first one in a pub!
Voice 1: Yeah.
Voice 3: But you know if you look there are so many variations on what happens to this poor sailor like you know you could probably do a 30-verse with all the different variations that have come through you know over the years. So obviously it gets adapted and changed and moved on.
Voice 2: What’s your favorite verse?
Voice 3: Well I have to sing the, yeah I have to sing that one so I there’s a couple where it’s a bit wordy and um I quite like uh I mean the end I really like because we do this we slow right down.
(Singing): Keel haul, keel haul him.
And then we do you know we kind of get into that kind of quite slow rhythm.
Voice 1: Uh so one of the times we went onto the Verda on the houseboats and they now have a like a singing well a performance boat and that was really lovely because we were singing on there looking at the sea and and really connected with the sea and the songs and the sunshine was out and yeah it was pretty special. That’s lovely uh lovely experience.