I doubt the capstan shanties for hauling anchors were very musical. As an example take "randy dandy oh" and HMS Victory. This ship had two anchor capstans one above the other so up to 144 sailors could be employed on the task that could take up to 5 hours of backbreaking labour. It was not a continuous process either. The capstan rope was a continuous circle of rope, not the same as the anchor rope.One was continuously untied and tied to the other by "nippers" and friction allowed the capstan rope to heave up the anchor cable and store the 6 tons of it into a locker, this employing yet more sailors. Even allowing for pauses the process was strenuous. The emphasis would be on keeping the timing, rather than musicality. I would imagine by the end of the process, even the singer was nackered. (other sources suggest up to 250 sailors would be employed raising anchors) A performance by shanty singers would find it hard to convey the hideousness of the process, in limited headroom and having to step over the rope with each revolution of the capstan, while all the while exerting maximum effort. If the dogs failed and the anchor was allowed to get away the capstan bars would be lethal.
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