Hello everyone,
I'm interested in all musical connections to R. L. Stevenson's works, and have been a failure so far in looking for the song mentioned in Tresure Island, the one sung by one of the Hispaniola pirates, Chapter 23:
Someone was singing, a dull, old, droning sailor's song, with a droop and a quaver at the end of every verse, and seemingly no end to it at all but for the patience of the singer. I had heard it on the voyage more than once and remembered these words:
"But one man of her crew alive,
What put to sea with seventy-five."

I searched the net, and this forum in particular (it seems to me the best place of all for such things), but found no mentioning of a similar song, but for a version of On the Banks of Newfoundland:

We hoisted aloft our signal; they bore down on us straightaway
When they saw our pitiful condition, they began to weep and pray
Five hundred souls we had on board when first we left the land
There's now alive but seventy-five on the Banks of Newfoundland
http://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=5826

which is close of course, considering the exaggerated number of sailors on board a single vessel and the scale of the tragedy, however, it's not quite the thing.
I will be thankful for any help with the song - with Stevenson one can't be sure if he's mentioning a real shanty or one of his invention, but I'm sort of sure this one must be real.
PS: I'm also interested in music written by Stevenson himself - mentioned a lot, no information. Has anyone got a clue?
Thanks.