1. From Paul Clayton's and Burl Ives' LPs in the 50s. I was a weird little kid.
2. Recordings and shanty sings in Portland, ME and Portsmouth, NH. Mudcat.
3. I used to teach them to children to show them how to work in unison.
4. The Boarding Party CDs and shanty sings. Barry Finn is an amazing source.
5. The internet has made access to the lyrics and recordings so easy. Source material, old recordings, histories of the songs and singers used to be limited to whatever my local library (and in earlier days, Book Bus) had to offer.Of course if someone says that Poor Old Horse is about the disemboweling and pagan sacrifice of a horse at sea to ward off thunderstorms, and enough people read it, it becomes fact for Snopes and soberer minds to sort out.