1917        Robinson, Captain John. "Songs of the Chantey Man." _The Bellman_ 23(574) (14 July 1917): 38-44.

Several of Robinson's chanties reoccur in Colcord's collection, so they are especially familiar nowadays.

Robinson said he heard the chanties "over 60 years ago," = mid-1850s. (Though I have seen the date floating around that he went to sea circa 1859-60?) However, he makes a disclaimer:

//
As may well be imagined, I cannot exactly recall all the original verses. They varied much according to the taste of the chanty-man and his powers of improvisation. In a crude way, however, I have endeavored to carry the spirit and sense of the originals into the words which I have written down.
//

And,

//
Without the music, which is really the chief attraction of the chanty, the words would be valueless. Therefore, in accordance with The Bellman's suggestion, I have sung the tunes over to a competent musician, Madame Girardot, who has arranged them…
//

In these later years "doggerel" continues to be used to describe chanty solos. Early, perhaps, "extempore" (or "nothingness"!) was the emphasis.

//
The solos are mere disjointed doggerel, merely something to which to hang the chorus.
//

Robinson also notes:

//
In point of fact, many of the original words were quite unprintable, and never intended for delicate ears. For instance, in "Bangidero," "Galloping Randy Dandy" and "Slav Ho," the words of some verses were really shocking, and the choruses quite unfit to be written, yet they were three good chanties, too.
//

I wonder if there is a time period where chanty lyrics started to become "dirty" as a matter of course. Early commenters did not make such remarks. There are of course several possible reason why they may not have noted (or even heard) such lyrics, but I am going to suggest the possibility that the character changed at some point. I seem to remember Stan Hugill saying (I don't know his source for the info) that the South American nitrate trade circa 1880s-90s was associated with crews that loved to sing spicy songs. Now, this is just my cultural imagination (maybe prejudiced) running away from me, but I picture these 1880s Liverpool men as being wont to tap into certain "dirty" lyrical themes that would not have been as common to the output of the older, African-American workers that gave us "Stormy." Then again, Robinson is supposed to be referencing the 50s….but then again, no: he mainly emphasizes his later experiences in Chile here.

It is probably really Robinson from whom Hugill got his idea of the dirty song-singing nitrate traders, because he goes on to say,

//
I never heard these except upon the coasts of Chile. Bolivia and Peru. The west coast of South America was an excellent training school for the chanty-man. The anchorages were very deep, and when a ship was ready to sail for home, parts of the crews of the other vessels in port would assist in weighing her anchor. This meant that several chanty-men would be present, and there would be an interchange of chanties.
//

It is unclear to me what body or repertoire he is calling British here, though he follows it with A-ROVING:
//
Most of those I submit were called "lime-juice" chanties by the American sailors; that is, they were originally sung on British ships, where a daily allowance of lime juice was served to the crew as an anti-scorbutic. On American ships of this period the food was much better, a great quantity of preserved vegetables was served to the men, and lime juice was unnecessary.
//

Information on the trajectory of chanty use here – far more nuanced than the (by then) clichés about "Steam has killed chanties," "these are our lost art," etc.
//
The advent of steamships and the use of steam power almost eliminated the chanty-man, but not quite, although his fate was sealed and certain. Even when steam-driven ships became almost universal, he still survived on the large North Atlantic liners, because, as the old packet ships were put out of commission, the crews, or "packet rats," swarmed on board the liners.

These were originally heavily rigged. The Cunard boats were bark-rigged; the National Steamship Line vessels were very heavily bark-rigged; the Inman liners were full-rigged, as also those of the Collins Line. The White Star ships were full-rigged, with another mast added, while the Union Line vessels were brig-rigged.

At that time it was an unwritten law that steam power was not to be used in making or taking in sail, and as the wind on the North Atlantic is of a varying nature, it was necessary to set and furl the sails frequently during every twenty-four hours. Chanties were therefore sung, and the chanty-man continued to exist, for a time, but his end was near. Early in the nineties the heavy yards were being abolished, as the speed of the ships increased, and in a few years the square-rigged merchant ship was a thing of the past. When the yards came down, the crews were reduced. Thus the song of the chanty-man was ended….

The sailor's chanty belongs just as much to the period of the square-rigged ship as all the other time-honoured traditions of the sea which steam has put to flight. …The gradual replacement of the square-riggers by schooner-rigged ships, the sails of which are far easier to handle, has likewise contributed to the disappearance of the chanty.
//
His last point there argues that it was not just mechanical devices/engines that made them obsolete.

//
Maid of Amsterdam [w/score]

In Amsterdam there lived a maid,
Mark well what I do say.
In Amsterdam there lived a maid,
And she was mistress of her trade.
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.
A-roving, a-roving,
Since roving's been my ruin.
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.
//

NEW YORK GIRLS – the "honey"/"money" style (cf. Alden):
//
Oh My Santi [w/ score]

My name is Larry Doolan, a native of the soil.
If you want a day's diversion, I can drive you out in style.
Then away you Santi! My dear Honey!
Oh! you Santi! I love you for your money.
//

RANZO RAY:
//
Ranso Ray. [w/ score]

We've pass'd the cliffs of Dover,
In the good old ship the Rover.
Ranso, Ranso, Ray!
We've anchored in the downs,
For we're bound for London Town.
With my Hilo! My Ranso Ray!
//

DERBY RAM, he says, was
//
…an old English chanty which was not often sung, was a windlass song.

Derby Ram. [w/ score]

As I was going to Derby, 'twas on a market day—
I met the finest ram, sirs, that ever was fed upon hay!
That's a lie! That's a lie! That's a lie, a lie, a lie!

…I can recall a few of the many verses beside that which accompanies the notes. Thus:

"This ram and I got drunk, sir
        As drunk as drunk could be,
And when we sobered up, sir,
        We were far away out on the sea.

"This wonderful old ram. sir,
Was as playful as a kid, 

He swallow'd the captain's spyglass
Along with the bo'sun's fid.

One morning on the poop, sir, 

Before eight bells were rung,
He grabbed the captain's sextant 

And took a shot at the sun.

One night 'twas wet and rough, sir, 

And the wind was blowing keen,
He borrowed my suit of oilskins 

And he took my trick at the wheel.

The butcher who killed this ram, sir, 

Was up to his knees in blood,
And the boy who told the tale, sir, 

Was carried away with the flood.

"The crew of the Vencedora
Are handsome, strong, and brave.
The smartest lot of sailors
That ever sailed over the wave."

I made many voyages before the mast in the Vencedora, always around Cape Horn to the coast of Chile.
//

HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING
//
Huckleberry Picking [w/ score]

Oh the boys and the girls went a huckleberry picking,
To my way, aye, aye, Hey, yah.
Oh! the boys and the girls went a huckleberry picking;
To my Hilo, my Ranso Ray.
//

More about the nature of chanty lyrics, and these versions:

//
It should be remembered that the words of many, perhaps most, of the chanties varied according to the tastes of the individual chanty-man. Some of the most popular chanties acquired an almost endless number of verses. The choruses would stay relatively unchanged, because the men who sang them were, as a rule, by no means gifted with inventive genius. The verses, on the other hand, could be strung out just as long as the chantyman could remember or invent them. No one was very particular about rhyme or meter, and there was seldom any great continuity to the songs themselves.
In the "Derby Ram," for example, an ingenious chanty-man could make up endless adventures in which the ram played the leading part. The tune and the chorus would be found pretty much the same wherever they were sung, but every ship would be likely to have a number of verses which were peculiarly its own.

This makes any attempt to record the chanties very difficult. Two persons familiar with any given song arc likely to find that the verses for it that they know are very different. The chanty-men did not learn their songs from books, but passed them along from mouth to mouth, with such changes or additions as happened to occur to them. The verses I give are simplv such as I remember —with many, from motives of propriety, omitted.
//

DANCE THE BOATMAN:
//
Dance the Boatman Dance. [w/ score]

The boatman he can dance and sing,
and he's the one knows ev'rything.
Dance the boatman dance. Dance the boatman dance.
We'll dance all night, till the broad daylight,
and go home with the girls in the morning.
Hurrah! the boatman Ho!
Spends his money when he comes on shore!
//

MR. STORMALONG (flip-flopped version):
//
Old Stormy! [w/ score]

Old Stormy was a fine old man.
Hi, Hi, Hi, Mister Stormy along!
Old Stormy was a fine old man.
To my way—o storm along.

Old Stormy he is dead and gone,
And for his loss, we'll always mourn.

He slipped his cable off Cape Horn,
Our sails were split, and the mainmast gone.

We buried him in the raging main,
And none shall see his like again.

Oh, if I was old Stormy's son,
I'd give the sailors lots of rum.
//

HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES
//
We're All Bound Away. [w/ score]

As I walked out one morning 'twas by the canning dock.
Heave away my Johnny, heave away
I met a noble Irish girl, conversing with Tap Scott,
And away my Johnny boys, we're all bound away!
//

JOHNNY BOWKER. Note its various applications:
//
For a good bowsing-up chanty, either for the bunt of a topsail, bowsing down the main tack, or sweating up the topsail halyards, I think nothing could beat "Do, my Johnny Boker." There is but one pull in it…

Johnny Boker. [w/score]

Do, my Johnny Boker, roll me in the clover;
Do, my Johnny Boker do!
Do, my Johnny Boker, rock and roll us over;
Do, my Johnny Boker do!

Years ago my Sally was fresh as any daisy,
But now she's growing old, she's growing fat and lazy.

Last time that I met her she wasn't very civil,
So I stuck a plaster on her back and sent her to the devil.

Sheepskin, pitch and beeswax makes a bully plaster;
The more she tried to pull it off, it only stuck the faster.
//

Robinson attributed the additional lyrics above to "Boker," but seems as if he may have confused it with Haul Away Joe.

LOWLANDS AWAY:
//
Lowlands. [w/ score]

Last night I dreamt of my true love.
Lowlands, Lowlands, away my John.
She begged me ne'er again to rove.
my Lowlands away.
//