Thanks, Charley.

I was thinking also of rolling bales of cotton

http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=126347#2871899

like maybe the guys who did it and were real "badasses" at it were "rolling kings"!

However, I'm not aware of any songs for rolling cotton bales.

And South Australia in its form doesnt seem like it would be good for cotton screwing. Incidentally, I don't recall any of the confirmed cotton screwing songs having a "heave away" command in them -- which doesn't necessarilly mean anything, because "heave away" could have been added at any time. But FWIW (we've had this discussion!) I don't think the screwing of cotton was a clear "heaving" action either. Whereas, for the sake of arument, the firemen on steamboat were heaving wood into the furnaces, presumably at a pretty fast tempo (menable to South Australia) and there is at least one song that shows the use of the phrase "heave away."

But none of these observations proves anything one way or the other. It is just my current thinking, which will probably change again by next week!