KathyW, that's just terrific. Thanks so much for taking the trouble. I'll be spending the next day or so happily transposing those Ab majs or whatever they are to something I can play.

There is a lot of interest in the introductory notes as well. I loved the story of taking a mooring near the palace of the "King of Oudh" (unless I'm mistaken, Oudh is the region to the NE of Delhi, so it seems as if Bullen's ship had gone a very long way up the Ganges. Could this be right?). And another of a crew which responded so vigorously to a shanty that a spar was broken.

I suppose nowadays we have to smile ruefully at the prejudices of Bullen and his friend Arnold, which seemed so obvious, so axiomatic at the time. The comments on the pentatonic scale, for instance, which is "of the most primitive form of modality known", and so is the basis of Celtic and Hungarian music, among others, including "most savage races". And black stevedores are happy, simple children. Fortunately, their prejudices were swept away by the power of the sound of the shanty, sung with a will by hard-worked labourers, and so we have this wonderful document. Thanks again.

Lighter, you're quite right and it was the first meaning that occurred to me too. But I thought that "your people" was more likely to refer to the members of a household than the customers.