Tucker: "...Songs are also used to aid the men in keeping time when pulling on a rope, where a fife is not available. They are very common in merchant ships." Which is not...

Gibb: "The custom of applying the practice of singing chanties to work tasks at sea seems to have been nearly exclusively confined to merchant vessels, particularly square-rigged ones with mostly Anglophone crews.

Sorting by "English vocals only" was the personal preference of 20th century, White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant folk singers. See also Forrest, Martial &c.

Switch to Spanish or French or Catholic and the etymology/glossary changes like day and night. The rigging is deaf.