Here's one that I'm sure people will have something to say about...

Title: "Roller Bowler"

Print: Hugill; Sharp;
Performers: Finn & Haddie; Stormalong John; Qftry; Bristol Shantymen; John Townley; Richard Adrianowicz; Monkey's Orphan;

Notes:
Hugill's was from Trinidad (anonymous) and Sharp's was from John Short. They have a similar shape, but the pitches vary a lot. Impossible to say whether this was the free variation that characterizes oral transmission, or goofs in transcription (accidently jumping up/down an interval of a fourth/fifth would not be the first time it happened in Hugill).

Stormalong John recorded it (I haven't heard that), but so far as I know, Stan himself did not-- though they may have learned it from him.

The Polish szanty scene has been a site of diffusion. Marek Szurawski is no doubt to be credited for this. His group Stare Dzwony recorded it. Qftry also recorded it in Polish, I think theirs bears the influence of Finn & Haddie's, just because of the way they shout out the Polish equivalent of "timme!"   I don't know much about the Bristol Shantymen, except that they seem to interact a lot with Polish groups -- based on the fact that these groups record many of the same body of less-common chanteys. They sing what I believe are Barry Finn's verses.

Barry Finn learned "Roller Bowler" from Szurawski in 1992. Some of the details of the circumstances are relayed in this mudcat post
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=77252#1379069

I picked up this song from Mareck Shakowsky (that's how it sounds, I sure it's not how it's spelled) in the summer of 92 during the tall ships (sail-op) visit to Boston. Mareck was acting as laison between the cadets & the captain (basically the 1st mate) aboard the wishbone schooner the Zawisza Czarny (translated; the Black Knight). I got invited (because I was singing on board with a fiddler who had just signed on) to go for an afternoon sail & as soon as we cleared the pier Mareck picked up a concertina & started playing (maybe as a call to work?) while playing he started shouting out orders & the crew/cadets started in with setting the sails with Mareck then starting to sing shanties, Londion Julie being the 1st & following it with Roller Bowler accompanied by 2 long time sea musicians, John Townley & Simion Spaulding & a few of the musicians in the crew with the others handling the sails & singing the responses. It was heaven.

For those who have not heard Finn & Haddie's rendition, see HERE.

After John Townley and the Polish crew of Zawisza Czarny returned home they recorded shanties from the voyage, incl "Roller Bowler", see HERE.

Barry says elsewhere that Townley refreshed his memory of Szurawski version later on.

Richard Adrianowicz recorded the song on his 2002 album. His notes:
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=49087#751280

My version of this shanty is a combination of some of the verses from Barry Finn and the setting that Shay Black sings. I first heard of this song from Barry Finn (minus the full chorus) who got it from Polish shanty singer Marek Siurawski. I had heard that Shay Black sang it too but with a full chorus. I heard Shay's version when he, chanteyranger, myself, Skip Henderson, and Jim Nelson sang some shanties for the dedication of the new MUNI (local light rail) F-Line which ends up a block away from Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco. Shay Black told me that he used to sing Roller Bowler when he lived in Liverpool and was singing with the band Stormalong John. I believe Shay learned the song from Stan Hugill who used Stormalong John as his shanty chorus for one of his concert tours. You can hear Shay singing the song on Stormalong John's cd Liverpool, a re-release of songs from earlier cassette tapes they had made. There is no indication on the Liverpool cd of who is in the band but there's no mistaking Shay's distinctive voice and he confirmed that it was indeed he on that recording. There is also a recording of Roller Bowler sung by Shay Black on a cd of a French sea music festival, Les Musiques De La Fete: Brest '92. It's too bad Barry Finn never has recorded it because he does a wonderful job on it [LATER RECORDED IN 2007].

I had fun with the "timme!" yells in the chorus. I sing the yells as solo lines simply because I like the way it sounds - it's not traditional to do it that way.

Though Richard says it is based in the setting of Shay Black, that sounds pretty much like all the versions I've heard (including Barry's). Still having not heard Stormalong John's version, it would seem that they set this now-common melody form. Monkey's Orphan, who also learned it from Shay Black, have this to say:
http://www.robingarside.co.uk/moremb.htm

Shanty Jack thinks he may have got this from the singing of Shay Black, sometime member of Stormalong John of Liverpool. This version differs somewhat from the 2 versions in Hugill, both of which have two short choruses and a longer one in each verse. This version has one short chorus and one long. We don't know whether it's an authentic version or just a result of approaching senility. Stan associates the song firmly with capstan work and the W. Indian sugar and rum trades.

Now, for whatever it's worth, the melody of all the foregoing interpretations is different from the print versions of both Hugill and Sharp. It seems Stormalong John may be ground zero for the new trajectory of this chantey. The question would be then, from where and how they learned it. Was it their own creation/variation, or learned orally from Stan -- in which case again his book is far off (though certain similarities corroborated by Sharp's version make the latter unlikely).

Here's an interpretation of what Hugill has in SEVEN SEAS. The harmony line is my own addition:

Roller Bowler