It's doubtful that Lloyd heard any Hugill-style singing in his seven months in "Southern Empress" in the '30s. According to his notes to "Leviathan!" (1967), the Welshmen on board "sang all the time: hymns, Nelson Eddy numbers, 'Just before the battle, mother' ...[and] 'The Indian Love Call.'" The rest of the crew, including Lloyd, "mostly sang film-hits or Victorian and Edwardian tear-jerkers, only a few whaling songs - 'Greenland Bound,' 'The Diamond,'...'The Balaena,'...'Off to Sea Once More.'"

It's hard to imagine where MacColl learned his "hitches," if not from a real shantyman, either in person or from some field recording.

Point of interest: "hitches" are far from general among Carpenter's singers on the two Folktrax discs. That suggests the likelihood that many shantymen sang at work without much "ornamentation." Of course, age and the recording context may have kept some of Carpenter's chaps from cutting loose. And none of the recorded singers seem to have been from the Indies - East or West.