Way back in his 1998 article, RY Walser gave a chart presenting the most common chanties in the Carpenter Collection. I can't tell if he meant that this tally came from only those chanties on audio recordings, or if it also included those for which there is text but no audio.

Walser's list (w/ my tags added, for comparison purposes):

//
Figure 1 lists the most numerous shanties, shown in order of frequency, of which recordings survive in Carpenter's collection.

Blow the Man Down [BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
Haul Away Joe [HAUL AWAY JOE]
Ranzo [REUBEN RANZO]
Whisky Johnny [WHISKEY JOHNNY]
Santy Anna [SANTIANA]
Blow Boys Blow [BLOW BOYS BLOW]
Bonnie Hielan Laddie [HIGHLAND]
Sally Brown [SALLY BROWN]
Poor Old Man [DEAD HORSE]
Shenandoah [SHENANDOAH]
Boney [BONEY]
Jamboree [JAMBOREE]
Leave Her Johnny [LEAVE HER JOHNNY]
Run Let the Bulgine Run [RUN LET THE BULGINE]
Tom's Gone to Hilo [TOMMY'S GONE]
Heave Away Me Johnnies [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES]
Paddy Doyle [PADDY DOYLE]
Haul for the Grog [ALL FOR ME GROG]
Rio Grande [RIO GRANDE]
Johnny Boker [JOHNNY BOWKER]
//

I've drafted my own list based on my work with the available info. It includes any shnty-form for which there were at least 6 instances. Ranked from most to least common. The number following the names, in parenthesis) tells how many instances there were. The number with "W" refers yo the ranking on Walser's list.

1. (W1) BLOW THE MAN DOWN (26)

2a. (W4) WHISKEY JOHNNY (17)
2b. (W6) BLOW BOYS BLOW (17)

3. (W3) REUBEN RANZO (14) + REUBEN RANZO?

4a. (W8) SALLY BROWN (14)
4b. (W2) HAUL AWAY JOE (14)

5. (W5) SANTIANA (13)

6. (W7) HIGHLAND (13)

7. LONG TIME AGO (11)

8a. (W19) RIO GRANDE (10)
8b. (W16) HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (10)

9a. (W9) DEAD HORSE (8) + DEAD HORSE?
9b. BOWLINE (9)

10a. (W15) TOMMY'S GONE (8)
10b. (W11) BONEY (8)
10c. (W18) ALL FOR ME GROG (8)

11a. SACRAMENTO (7)
11b. ROLL THE COTTON DOWN (7)
11c. MR. STORMALONG (3) + MR. STORMALONG? (4)
11d. (W20) JOHNNY BOWKER (7)
11e. (W12) JAMBOREE (7)

12a. (W10) SHENANDOAH (6)
12b. (W17) PADDY DOYLE (6)
12c. (W13) LEAVE HER JOHNNY (6)
12d. HUNDRED YEARS (6)
12e. HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING (6)
12f. A ROVING (6)

(W14) RUN LET THE BULGINE


Like Walser, I found BLOW THE MAN DOWN the most. As earlier discussed, Carpenter wrote an article on variants of that chanty, and I wonder if maybe it was a personal mission of his to collect as many variations as possible. We don't know (?) his exact fieldwork methodology, and it may have been that he influenced what songs were sung, say, by requesting them or reminding informants about them.

Anyway, it's hard to compare my list and Walser's precisely, because his does not indicate ties in the ranking. Sure, it's only a rough guide. FWIW however, we may note that LONG TIME AGO, BOWLINE, SACRAMENTO, ROLL THE COTTON DOWN, and MR. STORMALONG (among the first 20 of my list) did not make his set. I'm not sure why. And his RUN LET THE BULGINE did not make my list.

The one surprise for me was the frequency of ALL FOR ME GROG, which up to this point has not appeared in this survey of chanty literature. Could this be another song that Carpenter perhaps requested from informants? Might he have filed it incorrectly as a shanty? Again, I am not sure.

One can also compare the repertoire to my list of shanties SO FAR most common up through the 1880s.

WHISKEY JOHNNY (20)

REUBEN RANZO (16), SANTIANA (16), SHENANDOAH (16)

BLOW THE MAN DOWN (15), CHEERLY (15)

BOWLINE (14)

BONEY (13), GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (13), HAUL AWAY JOE (13), HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (13), RIO GRANDE (13)

SALLY BROWN (12), STORMY (12)

MR. STORMALONG (11)


Blow the Man Down was certainly common, but Carpenter's set seems skewed. "Blow Boys Blow" also has a high ranking in Carpenter, and it's another that, judging from his writing, he took particular interest in. "Shenandoah" was lower in the rankings of Carpenter than one might expect, and I might speculate that it was a little more common with American singers rather than the British singers that Carpenter interviewed. "Cheerily Men" is poorly represented in Carpenter's, which we know to be because it was a song of an earlier era.

I supposed I'd have to compare only the chanteys of the core time of Carpenter's singers -- 1860s, 70s, 80s -- for a better representation of the similarities and differences.