Hugill & crew size: Hugill was born, raised and died in the 20th century. A hundred years ago is book learned history to him too. And Hugill (apparently?) did not include fiddle or fife music in his definition of a "work song." History thought otherwise.

The general document record suggest the need for command and control was more directly proportional to crew size and the likelihood of there being a dedicated, pro song leader (musician) goes up, not down. If it's just part-time singers, there will still be more mates to go with the boatswains, the 'other' song leader job title most often mentioned in the sources.

Hardware didn't come cheap in the colonies. Whalers and songs aside, early era North American ship owners might use over-manning smaller, coastwise vessels as an excuse to eliminate a capstan or windlass altogether.