I was fortunate to receive a copy of "Ooker John" (Whall) from Q. It does match the overall pattern of Hugill/Harding, in my opinion, even if many of the pitches are different. From my experience performing music, to which I'm sure many others can relate, it's easy to drift into alternate melodic phrases when remembering old tunes -- especially phrases that are some specific harmonic interval away. It's a bit like recalling, erratically, a harmony part to the tune. For this reason, I am fairly liberal in ascribing relatedness among orally spread tunes. That being said, Whall's text is probably an unlikely source for subsequent performances of the chantey.

Lighter wrote:

[Whall's] stylistic observations, however, are extremely significant to shanty history. This is especially so as Hugill (by far the most influential of all shantymen on revival singers) claimed to have learned so much about shanty singing, notably the use of "hitches" in the voice, from West Indian seamen.

Recall how *few* "hitches" and "yelps" appear in the singing of Carpenter's unanimously white singers.

I'm unclear on your position. Do you mean that Whall's observations cast some doubt on Hugill, or vice versa?

Were Carpenter's singers all British? If so, does this leave room for White Americans and the hitch, in your point of view? So far I'm unconvinced that only Black singers would have sung like that -- isn't it, for example, very common in country music of Whites in America, too? And I don't recall ever learning it from chantey singers, Black or White, before I started singing that way. It is possible that what we hear in the Southern White singing is the influence of Blacks...and that my countless, untraceable influences since birth in America enculturated me to the sound unaware of sources. Hard to say.