I may have made some good contacts there.  At the last moment, as usual, so sadly I didn't get to tape anything but I think I did find some interesting chantey singing.  Used for building construction (!) as sort-of implied in Abrahams' Deep the Water.

Seems the clippers & fast packets never did land at St. Thomas since it was a primary pirate stronghold.  No fools, they.  Thus local people didn't get to sail much on the ships that produced the chantey-singing.  However, there was significant contact among all the islands by local rowboat and there was a certain amount of whale catching by multi-manned rowboats.  (See "FINE TIME O' DAY" in DigiTrad)  This was variously confirmed to me.

I heard literally a scant 2 minutes of singing.  A fine voice and three song frags clearly in chantey style.  There are also considerable oral histories & songs made but never made public.  These are locally available.

Anyone heading for St. Thomas & seriously interested in collecting should contact me.  I told my contacts to expect you.