Agreed. And interesting.

Still, I'm uncomfortable with the heavy work being done by the word "famous"!

Following that with "originally a cotton-rolling song" doesn't help the case, since I've never seen evidence of that and I'm not sure how the writer would have knowledge of that.

There is some interesting stuff in that article along with some weird stuff. He says "Across the Western Ocean" was "one of the oldest capstan chanties." Funny enough, a chanty by that title *is* among the oldest (in Nordhoff). But as for a capstan, no. And then what he goes on to quote is some form of "All For Me Grog" rather than the expected song. Confusing!

Captain David Bone was from Glasgow, and shipped in Australia in the 1890s... and used the "chanty" spelling. Maybe some early thoughts from him?

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According to _The Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimké._ (ed., 1988), "negro boatmen" transporting the author from Beaufort, SC to St. Helena Island, in 1859, sang "Roll, Jordan, Roll" while rowing, followed by another spiritual. This supports the sense (also supported by material in _Slave Songs from the United States_) that some singers had abandoned secular repertoire for work activities by this time as part of a general shift to looking down on the secular songs.