fwiw: Maritime work song has always been a social contract between two or more classes; collegia and corpora; labour and (middle) management; oppressed sailors and greedy owners... and everybody has always had a complaint.

Methinks a general preference for the instrumental, or disapproval of lyrics if one prefers, was often in place in the so-called 'proto-shanty' era. And the same attitudes in both classes would limit the selection of all work song and forebitter of any sort.

Sea Shanties from 'The Complaynt' (1549) (Note the stretch in OP's personal definition of the genre label.)

Until they invented Protestant sailors, Western shantying was mostly Catholic, most of the time, or else... You think the Anglican R.N. "Blue Lights" were restrictive? Pffft! Amateurs! The record does note changes in Catholic celeusma and gritaria practices when the Inquisition formally ended... thanks to Nelson, Wellington et al. Coincidently, (??) right about the advent of the shanty era.