The foreword is by prominent Liberal politician and shipping magnate's son Sir Walter Runciman – what he has to say is loaded with sadness at the loss of sail-powered shipping from a 1920s perspective.

"It is sometimes difficult for old sailors like myself to realize that these fine shanty tunes—so fascinating to the musician, and which no sailor can hear without emotion—died out with the sailing vessel, and now belong to a chapter of maritime history that is definitely closed. They will never more be heard on the face of the waters, but it is well that they should be preserved with reverent care, as befits a legacy from the generation of seamen that came to an end with the stately vessels they manned with such skill and resource."

then follows the text from the first post above.