"My bet is that there would be a lot of rhythmical shouting and probably to break the monotony"
This is the basis of C M Bowra's book 'Primitive Music'
The late song Collector, Tom Munnelly always argued that Ireland has no great history of Sea Shanties, but the nearest he ever came to hearing one was from a gang of Navvies in Dublin singing a made-up nonsense piece while hauling a length of cable through a pipe
Jim Carroll