Too much drift for the R.N. thread...

Steve: Has the word 'chanty' however you spell it ever been used anywhere in a historical context to describe anything other than work SONG aboard merchant ships?

I haven't worked my way up to the era of popular usage as yet but... from what I've seen so far "work song" runs a very distant second to popular song & young adult fiction. Very little of that is in chronological context with the practices. The usage is mostly nostalgic retrospective, reenactment & recreation. The etymology is more like "bulgine" than say "baroque" or "fiddle."

"Historical context" as I would use the phrase, in a naval history or science context I have not found yet. Have you?