Read what I said in my first post to this thread Gibb Sahib.

1: "Commands in the RN covered evolutions concerning the sailing of the ship and serving the guns."

2: "Commands were given either by shouting numbers (Mainly when serving the guns) and by bosun's call or pipe when handling sail - both of these methods of communication orders would be heard when the ship was in action - a song would not"

The gun thing is how it was explained to us while in the Royal Navy by RN Seamanship Instructors. As for the "what about the 1-2-3 and the haul-in-haul-2-belay attested for the 100 years from Falconer to Smyth" - Never heard of either and never used either.

2-6-Heave was also used when raising and turning out ships boats when they were hung from unpowered radial davits.