Lighter et al-

"Whall (who went to sea in the 1850s), Hugill, Doerflinger, and all other writers on the subject go out of their way to say that, in their experience, "shanty" was the only pronunciation used by sailors."

Which was also the rationale that Joanne Colcord and C. Fox Smith used for their eventual use of "shanty" and "shantyman," as did Doerflinger.

Frederick Pease Harlow, however, went with "chantey" and "chanteyman" but makes the point that sailors pronounced the word "shanty."

I was also struck by Richard Dana's mention of the nautical worksongs ("singing out at the ropes") in his Two Years before the Mast (1840) as he described his experience as a sailor in the 1830's, with no mention of any particular term such as "shanty, chanty, chantey, or even tchahntey."

I also agree that the term, however spelled, originated among the stevedores in the Gulf ports of Mobile and New Orleans, and then was adopted by the sailors.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble