To Gibb's comments, I would add only that Hugill, too, seems to have learned a great many of the chanteys that he himself sang at sea in the 1920s from African-Caribbean chanteymen.

Almost as good as Bullen is Captain W. B. Whall's "Ships, Sea Songs, and Shanties" (1927, with earlier editions).

Whall learned the shanties mainly when he was at sea as a teenager in the 1860s. His versions are not as brief as Bullen's, but they rarely go on for more than three or four stanzas

Whall was highly opinionated, however, and not all of his commentary can be taken at face value. But I don't think anyone has ever criticized the authenticity of his texts and tunes.