Chanteys were sung on board Venetian galleys, according to a printed record, c. 1493.
After describing whistle orders, and various ranks of seamen, the author said, "Under these again, there are others who are called mariners, who sing when work is going on, because work at sea is very heavy, and is only carried on by a concert between one who sings out orders and the laborers who sing in response. So these men stand by those who are at work, and sing to them, encourage them, and threaten to spur them on with blows. ....They are generally old and respected men." Whether the practice extended from merchant galleys to naval galleys is not stated.

The quote from Joanna Colcord, 1938, "Songs of American Sailormen." She did not discuss U. S. or Royal Navy practice.

The French have a long tradition of chantey song, but this is not evident unless one obtains the French literature. Most English and American writers tend to say that most of the French chanteys were borrowed form the English or American ships, but this is just part of the French repertoire. Some of the borrowing went the other way, e. g., "Boney" (was a warrior) was derived from "Jean-François de Nantes."