For what it's worth, the draft notes on Lucy Long read:

LUCY LONG (2998)        
Sharp: 'I know of no other version.' Terry: 'I have never heard it from anyone else.' Hugill: 'picked up in Trinidad in 1931.' Hugill criticises Sharp for writing 'wring' instead of 'ring' and says the word is a substitute anyway. I suspect it's actually a euphemism and that 'ring' or 'wring' (it makes no difference) was actually sung. Sharp did not publish the 'wrung her all night' verse (of course) – and Stan did not work from the mss. – only the publication!

The verses collected (as opposed to published) were:-


Was you ever on the Brum-a-low
Where the yankee boys are all the go
To my way-ay-ay ha ha
Me Johnny boys ha ha
Why don't you try for to wring Miss Lucy Long

As I walked out one morning fair
To view the views & take the air

There I met Miss Lucy fair
                           I do declare

Miss Lucy had a baby
She dressed it all in green

I wrung her all night and I wrung her all day
And I wrung her before she went away

In answer to Gibb's query - the recordings of John Short's shanties will all be new - Short was never sound recorded and died in 1933. Therefore there isn't a 'live' continuity and I still feel a bit of a fraud posting to this thread when that's what it's about - sorry! On the other hand, it occurs to me that when we put Short's 'Rosabella' into currency through Collins & Mageean, look what happened to it - I wish we could now trace it's passage round the shanty crews since 1978. Guess it moved around rather as the original shanties did singer to singer - but with less variation!

TomB