In the following post, I listed the so-called "Western Packet" or "Blackball Line" chanties mentioned in Hugill. I said:

"While there is no written documentation from that period that I have been able to find with regard to the shanties sung on board the packet ships, there does seem to be general agreement about the songs that come from that era."

and,

"I am assuming that all of these songs, in one version or another, would have been current in New York and other eastern ports in the late 1840's and would have found their way to California during the Gold Rush of 1849, and thus would have been available in San Francisco to sail on board the "Julia Ann" on her voyages to Sydney in 1853-1855. "

thread.cfm?threadid=126347&messages=515#2838469

While the first statement continues to be the case, I can no longer maintain my second assumption. While we've been able to document songs like "Stormalong" and "Whiskey Johnny" in the 1850's, along with "Poor Paddy Works On the Railway", I have not been able to find any references to these other songs prior to the 1860's. That is strange to me, since the height of the Western Packet trade peaked perhaps in the 1850s. And just because they are not mentioned doesn't mean they weren't around. However, their popularity certainly seems to have been later, even after the packet lines met their demise or were replaced by the steamers.

My question is this. If "Stormalong" gets mentioned as often as it does, why not some of these other songs? There were a lot of people sailing on those packet ships. Did these chanties not really evolve until a bit later?   In any case, I cannot with any confidence place them in San Francisco in the 1850's.