1915        Terry, Richard Runciman. "Sea Songs and Shanties."_ Journal of the Royal Music Association_ 11(41): 135-140.

On May 18, 1915, R.R. Terry (1865-1938) addressed members of the [Royal] Musical Association. Terry, an expert in liturgical music and the organ, was presumably in the midst of his project of collecting chanties. Here he uses a bit of his clout as a descendant of sea-farers to gain some leverage among his colleaugues. This is a transcript or summary of his address, from the proceedings of the meeting, followed by points from the discussion.

Terry is jumping into the fray after the 1914 showdown between Bullen and Sharp.
//
There is a great deal of literature on the subject, but the lecturer has been long familiar with Shanties from hearing his own sailor relatives sing them. There is this to be said about sailors' Shanties: there are so many variants of all the tunes that there is plenty of material for a lecture without having recourse to compiling from existing literature.
//
So, he proposes to make is own musicological contribution.

On spelling:
//
As regards the spelling of the word" Shanties," every person
who has had any connection with the Sea knows that the word
is pronounced in that way; there is no reason therefore why the
spelling should not correspond.
//

//
A Shanty was not sung by way of recreation, but was used to
lighten labour. …They flourished with the sailing ship and the coming of steam has killed them. Their origin so far as the composers are concerned is not known. In those unsophisticated days some sailor on
board ship more musical than the others probably collated the
tunes he knew, and the result was the Shanty. It had been
asserted that most of them were of negro origin, and that they
suggest ragtime. But there is nothing less suggestive of ragtime
than the Shanty; it has a clean, definite, rhythm which would
help the men at their work.
//
This is a response to Bullen.

He continues,
//
The negro in the West Indies is not the American negro. It is the latter that sings ragtime, and not so much he as the people who caricature him. The negro of the more primitive type is a person with a keen sense of persistent rhythm. In the West Indies one can hear Shanties to this day.
Here, perhaps, if one wants to get it, can be found the derivation
of the word Shanty, for the negro huts are called by this name. When a negro quarrels with his neighbour, and the relations between them are too strained for them to live any longer together, then one arranges to have his shanty moved. They are moved on trolleys, which are pulled by men at the end of ropes stretching down the road; and as they pull, the shantyman sits on top of the roof astride and sings the solo part of
some "pull and haul" Shanty. If the word is derived by some
from the French verb chanter, possibly this West Indian custom
is also a plausible explanation.
//
This may be the start of the "hut" theory? I'm not sure; I've tended to gloss over that in readings. What I find more interesting is the way he negotiates Bullen and Sharp. To essentialize their positions (!): Bullen says "Chanties are mainly Negro origin…I know through lived experience", Sharp says, "No, not really…I doubt it based on my musicological analysis." And Terry says, "OK, Negro, but *Caribbean*…this explains the musical inconsistencies." Personally, I think they are mixing up dance song and work song, which share some features (being a product of the same culture's musical system), but which shouldn't be compared so closely.

Seems to be rehashing Bullen, on the nature of shanty lyrics:
//
As regards the words, there are a few stereotyped verses at
the beginning and then the shanty-man used to invent the rest
which had to do with shipping, politics, personal characteristics.
the food, &c., all of which came in for a share of sarcasm
according to his extemporising capacity. Napoleon was a
favourite subject of the men, and so was a certain mythical
person called Starmy. [sic] The average sailor Shanty after the first
verse or so was simply unprintable, and that is especially so with
"The Hog's Eye Man," one of the most beautiful of the lot.
On an East Indiaman it was a great event for the passenger to
come and listen to the sailors' Shanties, and this particular one
was a great favourite on nearing port, but the singing of it was
absolutely forbidden except when the Captain could be assured
that a printable version would be used.
//

Taking a jab at Sharp's ilk here—interesting for someone familiar with modes from Latin liturgical music (his expertise):
//
One hears a great deal about modal evidence in Shanties.
The mistake of most Shanty books is that modal melodies are
often treated as if they were in keys, while on the other hand
there are a great many which are really either major or minor,
but are called modal. Modes seem to have a fascination for the
folk-song hunter; he finds Mode in everything; but a tune may
fulfil the conditions of Modal melody and yet not be in a Mode.
//

Minstrel sources recognized.
//
There are several types of Shanty which are without doubt
taken from published songs, some of them sung by the original
Christy Minstrels. Many a Christy Minstrel melody was adopted
on board ship, for anything could be made into a Shanty.
//

A plug for his forthcoming book?:
//
The ideal collection has yet to come. The sailor must combine
with the musician, and there must be a distinction between
tunes in Modes and in keys, but all is lost labour unless there is
real sympathy with and a certain practical knowledge of the
[li]fe at sea.
//

Following this, a choir performed some examples, then, discussion.

//
THE CHAIRMAN: It is quite clear that Dr. Terry is steeped in
Shantyism! …However, Dr. Terry did not go to sea [and thus didn't perish], and so we have been able to enjoy the benefit of his research and of his accumulated knowledge concerning shanties. As to his philological
remarks about the spelling of the word, I would seriously advise
him not to set foot in the class-rooms of Oxford University, and
utter such fearful heresy about "shanty." More than a dozen
professors would rise and ask if he had ever been to school, and
if so whether he had forgotten the Latin verb cano, which surely
must be the original root of words standing for singing and
chanting. We must not have a philological discussion, but I
cannot agree as to his spelling of "shanties," it hurts one's eyes
terribly. The suggestion has been made that it has connection
with the shanty or hut of the negroes, which is very ingenious and
clever. And there are shanties in Ireland, funny little places
where you get something stronger to drink than water. Well, the
imbibing of such potations leads to a certain amount of singing,
therefore it might be said that the word "shanties" comes from
these places where you get whisky! …
//
So, the "ch" spelling had been fairly well entrnched up to this point (e.g. in Englishmen Sharp and Bullen, though not in Whall), and what now seems to be the Commonwealth spelling preference of "sh" did not form until later.

Feedback from the Chairman on the lyrical nature:
//
…The words may seem foolish and silly if looked at coldly, but I
remember a time when in singing certain songs they did not think
so much of the words as of the music; to make out the rhythm
and accent and carryon the measure to the end they used to
insert all sorts of words. So with the sailors, they had to finish
their measure, and if necessary improvise words, there is nothing
very remarkable in that. As to some of the lines being
unprintable, I have in my collection Campion's Songs, written for
the lute, bass viol, and voice. He was a musician in the time of
Queen Elizabeth, and wrote some beautiful hymns and poetry, but
some of the songs are unprintable, though they stood for the feeling
of the day. Sailors in singing their shanties were not supposed
to have listeners, and they just said anything that came into their
head; one cannot blame them for that.
//

//
Mr. J. H. MAUNDER: Dr. Terry referred to the Christy
Minstrels in connection with shanties. Does he know if some of
the Christy Minstrels' songs were taken from shanties or vice versa,
and could he give us an idea of the time the Christy Minstrels
started? I remember hearing as a boy that the Moore and
Burgess troupe was developed from the Christy Minstrels.
//
JOHN, GRAHAM: …I have heard lectures on shanties on several
occasions, but I have not come across anyone with such a grip
of his subject as Dr. Terry has shown, nor with his enthusiasm.
I think the plan adopted this afternoon is peculiarly interesting. I
do not think it has been done before--that of giving a number
of shanties in a set. It seems to me there is a great chance of
shanties being sung by men's choirs and so on in this form.
Whereas one shanty might be put aside as being insignificant,
when we have a kind of fantasia of them in this way they become
exhilarating. I have enjoyed the singing; there has been a real
hit of British style about it: and in the coming years probably
we shall cultivate more and more of the rollicking, true John
Bull kind of song and tune.
//

//
Dr. TERRY: I am pleased to find that my -few n:marks have
been well received; but I am disappointed that I have not had
the man-handling I expected on several debatable points raised
with the express purpose of provoking discussion. I was not
unmindful of the derivation given by the Oxford Dictionary. My
suggestion has been spoken of as clever and ingenious. leaving it
to be inferred that like most clever, ingenious things, it is
worthless because too clever by half. But I would point out that
the British tar seems to have derived hardly any words from a
foreign tongue. An important reason why we should spell the
word as shanty, is that we want future generations to pronounce
the word as the sailors did; even our Chairman once or twice
pronounced it "shanty." [Does he mean "tchanty"?] As to the derivation of the word given in the Oxford Dictionary, some quite good authorities dissent from it.

I have been paid too great a compliment in having it thought
that I have dived deeply into an out-of-the-way subject. Had I
not come of a sailor family, or had I been living in London all
my life, it would have taken a considerable amount of time to
collect the material. As it was, it has been no trouble: I could
not help it, I have grown up with it: therefore I cannot claim
the credit of having spent long laborious nights wasting the
midnight oil collating information; one could not help imbibing
these things as a youngster. In regard to what has been said about
words being unprintable, I remember once being asked by a
Musical Club to give them something that had not been in print,
something old that had not been printed in England before.
Well, I arranged a quartet, and we sang it in public-myself,
a professional singer, a minor Canon, and another clergyman,
I think-something in medireval Italian which we pronounced as
modern Italian. You can imagine how startled and shocked we
were to find later what we had really been saying! Luckily no
scholar of medireval I talian happened to be present, so it was
never found out. As to the question raised about the Christy
Minstrels, .I went into that point, and showed that some shanties
were derived from Christy Minstrels and vice versa. I ought to
know the date when Christy Minstrels began, but I do not. But
Mr. Britten, whom I see here, is an authority on all these matters.
I am sorry Mr. Britten has not spoken, for it would have been an
enlivening and intellectual exercise.
Mr. BRITTEN: The date was about 1858.
Dr. TERRY: If Mr. Britten says 1858 or thereabouts you may
take it that he is right.
//
Britten was wrong! :-)