Gibb
Should your second post be 1825 rather than 1925?

Your article seems to suggest that cries only started in the mid-18thc. Surely there are plenty of references that predate this. What about the description in The 16thc Complaynt of Scotland?

Off the top of my head in the Napoleonic Wars didn't the RN revenue cutters off the north east coast use chanteys, particularly 'Cheerly Men'? I seem to remember reading this somewhere.