1885        Runciman, James. Skippers and Shellbacks. London: Chatto and Windus.

Son of coastguardsman Walter Runciman. Also a journalist; may have been familiar with some shanty articles. These are short stories, some of which mention shanties.

In "The Chief Mate's Trouble." Set in 1870. A barque leaving port. A chorus from RIO GRANDE.

//
There was plenty for me to do without thinking of sentiment; yet, sweating and breathless as I was, I had time to feel sad when the shanty-man struck up, "Away down Rio." The chorus goes:

Then away, love, away,
Away down Rio.
O, fare you well, my pretty young girl,
We're bound for the Rio Grande.

We were giving her the weight of the topsails, and all the fellows were roaring hard at the shanty, when I saw what I wanted to see. My bonny was out on the end of the jetty....
//

In "An Old Pirate." Set after 1878.

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I guessed what Tom meant, and a few minutes afterwards I hummed the shanty—

"So where they have gone to, there's no one can tell—
   Brandy and gin and a bottle of rum;
But I think we shall meet the poor devils in hell,
   Brandy and gin and a bottle of rum."

Tom turned sharp.
"You know it, do you 1 Many's the time I've heard that for an hour on end when we was having idle time, and the stuff was plenty. Know any more V
I sang—

"We went over the bar on the 13th of May,
   Brandy and gin and a bottle of rum;
The Galloper jumped, and the gale came away,
   Oh ! brandy and gin and a bottle of rum."

"You ain't got it right. You've heerd it aboard a collier, maybe?"
I had heard the wicked shanty on board a collier brig, as it happened, but my version was corrupt. The gruesome song which Mr. Louis Stevenson lately printed is also corrupt. In fact, Mr. Stevenson's verse is so artistically horrible that I rather fancy he composed it himself.
//

I assume he's referring to "yo ho ho and a bottle of rum." He may be fanciful in calling this a "shanty."

In "Lancelot Hinhaugh's Long Voyage."

//
...Then he starts singing again one of the ordinary capstan songs with a chorus, and you could hear the hum of his voice all over, for there was no wind to speak about. He climbs into the boat, and I went by him careless like, and he says, "Damn the thing! I can't get it right. Here, you, tell the carpenter this is his job; and so he gets the only man near out of the way. Then, with his back to me, he sings rather low:

"Look out to-night in the middle watch—
    Roar, my boys, I like to hear you;
Oh ! keep your eye on all the lot,
   And, my Way-O, we'll make her ring.'

You would have thought he was only going through a common shanty, as the men will do at their work; but I heard the words plain, and I knew the time was come for me. Before the man came back from the carpenter, the sailor went on:

"Keep your eye on Donovan—
Cheerly, men in the Quebec Line;
He's got the rope to throw round your arms—
I-oh, cheerly men, cheerly men.
I'll stand by as long as I can—
Cheerly men, why don't you sing?
But there's just me and Jimmy to face the gang—
I-oh, cheerly men, cheerly men."
//

Using chanties to send messages! Well, the second is similar to CHEERLY, but it may be all made up.

In "A Chapter of Accidents." Ship bound for Boston.

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The second mate was a fine young chap, and a good seaman, but the trouble unmanned him and he lost his senses. He began to try singing shanties, and his hoarse shrieks were awful to hear in the pauses of the gale. With chattering teeth and contorted face, he yelled:

"Now, my bully boys, all get ready,
   We'll be stiff when the sun shall rise;
And here's to the dead already,
   And hurrah for the next that dies."

Then they heard him sing:

"The standards was gone and the chains they was jammed—
   With a heigh-ho, blow the man down;
And the skipper, says he, 'Let the weather be damned—
    Oh, give me some time to blow the man down.'"
//