Regarding this horse--- He's dead, Jim.

Blow the Man Down, in its several versions, is a long
drag or halyard shanty dating at least from the age of
the clippers or no less old than the 'packet' trade
which was the last gasp of sail. These were large
vessels, and somewhat under-crewed. Raising tops'l
yards is a ton (literally) of work, and was accompanied
by songs like 'Blow the Man Down' which had two pulls
on each line of the chorus.

Such songs were useless on anything so lightly rigged
as coasters or even on the 'hybrid' steam/sail vessels.

Furthermore, virtually EVERY version of Blow the Man Down
(Hugill gives at least four) has tell-tale references to
both land and sea terms which CLEARLY DATE IT FROM THE
AGE OF THE SAILING PACKETS.

To claim that it has anything to do with steam, or speaking
tubes, etc., it to ignore historical references, oral tradition,
naval architecture, and is about as silly as claiming that
'Row Row Row Your Boat' was written to accompany the pulling
of the starting-rope on an Evinrude outboard.

And by the way, it's 'Too-Lye-Ay' not bloody 'Too-Rye-Ay.'