The Chicago Maritime Festival blows into Old Town School this weekend. Brush up on your sea shanties. View Full Caption Flickr/Henry Zbyszynski

LINCOLN SQUARE — If Chicago seems an unlikely location for a Maritime Museum (who knew?), need we remind you of Wendella cruises?

Sure Lake Michigan's no Atlantic Ocean, but actually, in the early part of the 20th century, the port of Chicago rivaled London for ship traffic.

That history will be celebrated in song at this weekend's Chicago Maritime Festival, held at the Old Town School of Folk Music.

In case you're not up on your sea shanties — and unless you're a pirate, why would you be? — here's what you need to know before you go.

Shanties, like the classic "Blow the Man Down," were work songs that sailors sung on board ship, in part to break up the boredom of the seafaring life. More importantly, the call-and-response tunes provided the rhythm needed for synchronized movements like rope pulling.

Maritime music also includes fishermen songs — hymns of the sea that typically asked for protection — and those sung by the women they left behind.

The BBC 4 documentary "British Shanties and Sea Songs" traces the lineage of the maritime genre from its heyday through the modern era, visiting coastal towns where the music is kept alive.

Performed as popular music in countries like Poland, the Netherlands, Germany and Norway, shanties are less well known in the U.S., a sort of bastard step-child of the folk movement.

The Maritime Museum, Maritime Festival and Old Town School are keepers of the shanty flame in Chicago.

In fact the late Steve Goodman, an Old Town alum, penned one of the best-known modern shanties, "Lincoln Park Pirates," an ode to the reputed strong-arm tactics of the Lincoln Towing Service.

Featured entertainers at Saturday's Chicago Maritime Festival include Bounding Main from Wisconsin and Chicago's own Sea Shanty Singers, who perform monthly at the Atlantic Bar & Grill, 5062 N. Lincoln Ave.

In addition to concerts, the festival includes workshops, exhibits and model boat building. Tickets to the event range from $10 to $23 and can be purchased online.

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