“...and the sprightly notes of the drum and fife, by which the labour of the capstan-bars is at present so much abated, was a delightful task assigned to the Grecian Trieraules, who stood before the mast, and cheered his weary shipmates with the exhilarating music of the Canaanites.

Against the mast the tuneful Orpheus stands,
Plays to the wearied rowers, and commands
The thought of toil away :
                Statius, Theb. V. v. 343”
[The Progress of Maritime Discovery, The Naval Chronicle, Vol.X, Clarke, 1803, p.407]