Studia Językoznawcze

The purpose of the article was a cultural and linguistic analysis and an interpretation of rhymes and songs created by members of the Polish Fleet crews. The rhymes and songs had been excerpted from the three volumes of the tales of Eugeniusz Wasilewski, among which there were two songs describing real people working together with the author on board the same ship, and three rhymes or poems, of which two are accounts of the purchase of the training ship ‘Lwów’ in Spain in 1921 and of the voyage from Gdynia to Brazil in 1923, and the third one is an expression of longing for a sweetheart. As there are no analyses concerning the literature of the sea and no determinants, the articles contains classifications that Polish researchers have created to analyse the folk literature and urban folklore texts. The conclusion from the analysis is that the literary production created occasionally by sailors is simple both in the contents and in the form, authentic (which is visible in numerous references to the surrounding reality), descriptive (which consists in focussing attention to concrete events without analysing the psychology of the characters), and humorous (expressed in colloquial vocabulary), and the action is restricted to one milieu thanks to many specialised terms. The authors who create literature of the sea using the above mentioned species features tighten bonds with readers, thanks to which they may better understand the life and work at sea.