Remember, in 2021, when TikTok was suddenly awash with sea shanties? It remains one of the most inexplicable, albeit wholesome, online crazes of the pandemic era: a tide of videos of young men (mostly men) with beards and nice sweaters adding layers of harmonies to ancient seamen's work songs. For a hot minute, these a capella folk songs about a sailor's sorry lot were the coolest music on the planet — and all because a Scottish singer called Nathan Evans uploaded a video of himself singing "Wellerman," a whaler's shanty originating in New Zealand.

It was a fun moment, but Ubisoft beat TikTok to it. In 2013, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, the pirate-themed entry in the historical action series, went hard on shanties. Alongside the original score by Brian Tyler, the game features dozens of collectable sea shanties that your crew will sing as you sail the Jackdaw.

The shanties are a hugely atmospheric addition to the Black Flag's seafaring exploration, emphasizing that the Jackdaw isn't just another video game vehicle. It's a vessel driven by the backbreaking labor of a crew, who have their own........

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