I've always understood that what's come to recognised as "the Sailor's Hornpipe" was a product of 1830's stage melodramas and adopted by naval PTI's for the torture of Shotley Orphans as part of ceremonial display.
However, there appears to have been a pipe "hands to dance and skylark" in the sailing navy, ordering a period of vigorous dancing and rough horseplay which was believed, by Captain Bligh amongst others, to help prevent scurvy. The fiddler was usually carried as a sickbay hand; the drummer / fife player would likely have been a marine I suppose.