We are drifting away from the Hornblower focus of this thread which is fine with me but maybe it's time to start All Armchair Sailor II, with more of a focus on nautical songs and their background. Maybe some cleaver "nipper" can figure out how to do that, if that's agreeable.

Gervase, thanks for clarifying "ship" and "sheep." Singing these songs is difficult enough without having to explain how the wool gets shorn and the nippers dipped. Come to think of it, though, didn't one old shanty get transformed into "Click Go the Shears" - Yah,"Strike the Bell." So, there, ships and sheep must have a lot more in common than you might think!