As you say, Gibb, there aren't many people alive who could critique what you write. I find what you have to say very educational and interesting. However, there must be a few of-the-period, specialist technical books that discuss the workings of such machines in detail. These could then be placed in the context of the chanty and a detailed exposition should turn up in your next book.

I've seen some diagrams in some of Stan's books, so these could be a useful starting point for discussion.

Here's a question to kick things off. You've already touched on this, but to what extent would heaving and hauling chanties overlap, generally speaking? It would make things a lot neater if there was little overlap. Publishers generally distinguished the 2 types either by just including what they knew of the chanties usages, or actually categorised them into different sections.

I have used your writings to make my own lists of when each chanty was noted year by year, but I'm thinking when I have more time revising this to show which tasks were designated for each chanty. This could then be put on a database and quantified.

Just had a thought: The cotton screw should also be included, as it relates to the technical, historical and musical aspects.