Jeri-

"Dialect" is an interesting discussion on its own. You should start a thread, or revive one.

As for me I probably go back to Hugill's dialect wording for most traditional sea songs, or modify things that I pick up elsewhere in the fashion of C.Fox Smith's sea poetry, what I take to be late 19th century "sailor talk." Maybe we should start a Paddy West School of Shantying.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble