Great thread, Azizi; I missed it the first time 'round.

There is a short story by the Nova Scotian writer Thomas Raddall - be damned if I can remember the title; I believe I read it in Reader's Digest, many years back - set I suppose in the early part of the twentieth century, concerning a song contest between a white and black singer, taking place in a Nova Scotian sea-port, before an enthralled audience of salts and landlubbers. As I recall, the contestants seem to sing ballads, as opposed to chanteys; the black singer eventually proves to know more ballads than his rival, and so wins the contest.

Thomas Raddall was quite an authority on Nova Scotian history and culture, but he was also a "creative" writer, so whether he based this story on some actual or likely event or made the whole thing up, I have no idea.

A propos West Indian chanteys - there were chanteys sung in Nova Scotia that were learned directly from West Indians in the Caribbean. One was on a CD of field recordings put out by - the Harbour Folk Society? the Helen Creighton Society? (where's George Seto - help me out here!) about two years ago. (I'll see if I can find a link ...).