I think that may go oddly to providing the latest offering with a bit more credibility M! Both 15 men and Lowlands were not 'sung' as such during this latest offering. It was far more a chant than a song and, with all due respect to Hugill, I cannot imagine the principle of Shanties sprang into life during the early 1800s. I can well believe collecting them started then and I do tend to believe the learned Mr H on a lot of things but I would always maintain that if a chant helped people work - they would have done it from the word go.

I appreciate that you have explicitely said 'reasonaby regared as shanty singing' but neither 'song' in the the latest TV series could be 'reasonabaly regarded' either. So, just maybe, the producers were aiming for a bit of realism? No? Ah well...

DtG