Very fine paper, Gibb. Surely the best researched paper on shanties to appear in years, and the best history of a single shanty ever.

It's hard to keep track at this point, but I don't believe that *any* text of the British "Lowlands" ballads quoted previously involve the ghost of a dead lover.

Such ghosts do appear in some ballads, but we're talking "Lowlands" here.

I'm not sure of the implications for the history of the shanty, but if true it can't be good for the reputations of the shanty editors.