John,
Thanks for digging up all these 1850s references of late!

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

I am fascinated by this. This and the "other" thread are beginning to converge at a time point. I am a little surprised by how few chanties can be ascribed to pre-Gold Rush times...though of course I still hold onto the idea that they were around despite lack of documentation!

Hopefully soon I'll get a chance to sort the references up the California Gold Rush, with an eye towards saying, "Look: here is the repertoire of chanties that we know (reasonably) to have existed then."