I stopped the above list at an arbitrary point. Will continue it a little further.

Also should be sure to add in the recently mentioned:

1837
the chanting man of the crew

Nordhoff 1856
chants, chanting, chanty-man

Abbe manuscript 1859
Shantie, Shanties

Nordhoff 1867
chants, chanting, chanting-man, chaunty-man


(list cont.)

1884
As the stranger approaches the river, a strange chorus greets his ear:

"Ro! ro! ro! ro! around the corner, Sally !" chant the voices; and another chorus strikes out with admirable effect,—

Nancy Bohannan, she married a barber;
Shave her away! shave her away!... The singers are black stevedores...

1884
When complete the noble steed is put on a box, covered with a rug, and on the evening of the last day of the month a man gets on to his back, and is drawn all round the ship by his shipmates, to the chanting of the following doggerel:—
    BURYING THE DEAD HORSE.

1885
Occasionally we hear some of the familiar chants, but “ Ranzo,” “ Haul Away, Joe,” and “Knock-a-man-down,” rarely animate the sailor in this period of maritime degeneracy.
...The sea-songs of Dibdin and others were really made for landsmen, and are different from the sailors' chants proper, which were of other material; like their working toggery, expressive and matter-of-fact. Prosody received but scant consideration, but the rhymes were a sort of rugged doggerel, with a refrain strongly accentuated, which served as a signal for all to pull away together. They were called Shanty songs, from the French word chanter, to sing, and many of them are familiar, having been incorporated in magazine articles and published in books.
...One of the sailors aboard the Montauk, who has been in the West Indies, furnishes the following example of a Shanty song, which is evidently the composition of some one possessed of a better ear for rhythm than the ordinary chanteur, as the measure is reasonably accurate.

1885
There was plenty for me to do without thinking of sentiment; yet, sweating and breathless as I was, I had time to feel sad when the shanty-man struck up, “Away down Rio.” The chorus goes:

Then away, love, away,
Away down Rio.
O, fare you well, my pretty young girl,
We're bound for the Rio Grande.

We were giving her the weight of the topsails, and all the fellows were roaring hard at the shanty, when I saw what I wanted to see.

1886
Years ago, when the (little) Great Western was fighting an almost solitary battle of steam versus sail power upon the Atlantic, the old Black X sailing liners were notable for their musical crews; and capstan songs, as they were called, always came rolling aft from a liner's forecastle...

1887
These black rowers then started a chant, of a more Anglican than Gregorian tone, the music of which was prettier than the words, though this is not high praise, the words being:

Oh, I wish I was in Mobile Bay—
   Sally, get round the corner;

c.1887
Sailor Songs or ‘Chanties’

1887
The boat, by the by, was that belonging to the Congo Free State factory, and the “Kruboys” who manned her, dressed in neat uniforms, pulled steadily and in good time, to the tune of “One more river to cross!” This air is known to them as “Stanley song” —they or their predecessors having learnt it from Bula Matadi himself, as a “chantee,” when hauling the steamers overland between Vivi and Isanghila.

1888
THERE are two kinds of sea-songs: those which are sung at concerts and in drawing-rooms, and sometimes, but not very often, at sea, and those which are never heard off shipboard. The latter have obtained in this age the name of 'chanty,' a term which I do not recollect ever having heard when I was following the life. It is obviously manufactured out of the French verb, and there is a 'longshore twang about it which cannot but sound disagreeably to the elderly nautical ear.

1888
Accustomed to the comparative independence and free life of a merchant-vessel, they look with scorn on the binding discipline and severe penalties of a man-o'-war, and laugh contemptuously as they watch the crew in uniform dress walk round the windlass, and weigh anchor like mechanical dummies:—...No hearty chanties there—no fine chorus ringing with feeling and sentiment, brought out with the sort of despairing wildness, which so often strikes neighbouring landsfolk with the deepest emotion.
...In it the heavier work is done by each man doing his utmost at the same moment. This is regulated by the “Chanty,” and here is the true singing of the deep sea—it is not recreation, it is an essential part of the work.
...A writer in the St. James's Gazette of December 6th, 1884, says: “The beau-ideal chanty-man has been relegated to the past. His death-knell was the shriek of the steam-whistle, and the thump of the engines. When he flourished British ships were manned by British seamen, and carried much stronger crews in proportion to their tonnage than their successors. In those days gipsywinches, patent windlasses and capstans, had no existence, and the heaving and hauling had to be performed by manual strength and labour; and to make the work 'go' lighter, the chanty-man chanted his strange lays, while the tars with hearty good-will joined in the refrains and choruses. ...
... Old tars tell us that the chanties are not what they were before steam became so universal:
...There are several kinds of chanty, though I believe, properly speaking, they should only be divided into two classes, namely, those sung at the capstan and those sung when hauling on a rope... [ETC, similarly]
...Much care was evidently given to “Lowlands” by the chanty-men.

1888
You may also still hear, sometimes as a forecastle song, but more often adapted, in time and metre, as a Chanty, a song which was popular in Captain Marryat's time:
Now, farewell to you, ye fine Spanish ladies,
...It is song that puts spirit and “go,” into all their work, and it is often said at sea that a good “Chanty-man” is equal to an extra hand. The chanties, or working songs, are the real sea songs of sea life. It may be that they are going gradually out of use nowadays, when so much is done by steam; but, wherever the concentrated strength of human muscles is needed, even on a steamship, there is nothing like a chanty for evoking the utmost motive power.
...Chanties are of various kinds, adapted to the different varieties of work on shipboard, and without a chanty a crew is as listless as a gang of South Carolina darkies without their plantation songs. In truth, there is a good deal in common between the working songs of sailors and of niggers, and it is curious that many of the most popular sea-chanties are wholesale adaptations of plantation airs, and often of the words also.

1888
And, whether to accompany the "slip-slap" of the windlass as the anchor of the homeward-bound ship comes up from foreign soil or to inspirit all hands when, in a gale of wind, they mast-head the topsail yard or set to work at the halyards, the inevitable "shanty" is yelled out at the top of strong and vigorous lungs.
Song lightens labor and has always been one of the sailor's most potent helpmeets. It is asserted that there is less singing among American sailors than with those of other nationalities, but be this as it may the American sailor has his own share of "shanties" and scraps of sentimental doggerel.

1889
Shantee or Chanty.—Whence comes the term "Shantee" or "Chanty," as applied to the songs of sailors?
...Possibly from the French verb chanter, to sing.

1889
In fact, there are two distinct sorts of sailors' songs, compositions of which only a very few indeed are sung by sailors, and compositions which nobody but sailors ever dream of singing. These last are well worthy of brief consideration. Some reckless modern has hurled the execrable term “chanty” at them, and the word, I am sorry to say, has stuck. I suppose the etymology of it must be sought in the French verb chanter. The “chanty,” as it is now the custom to call it—pronounced “shanty,” I believe, but I am very unwilling to have anything to do with it—is the modern generic appellation of the mariner's working song or chorus.
...A new song will sometimes be as good as a couple of new men to a ship's forecastle; hence in the merchant service sailors' songs, in the strict sense of the expression, are of incalculable value. To be sure in these days steam and patent machinery have diminished something of the obligation of these chants.
...I remember a lady writing to ask me to assist her in forming a collection of the sailors' working songs, and I could not help thinking that if by Jack's songs she meant the “chanties,” as they are now called, she would be starting on a quest which I might expect to hear in a very little time she had relinquished with a hot face and a shocked heart.

1889
For the first six weeks all the “shanty songs” known on the sea had been sung.

1890
Shanty… (Nautical), a song.
It was a tough pull, as the shark was over fifteen feet in length, until the mate suggested a shanty, or sea-song, a corruption of the French word chanter, which a fo'cs'le Mario commenced, and the rest joined in vigorous chorus.

1890
For it is not so much the sense, but the sound principally that influences the men in their choice of a “Chanty." These songs are not without a certain beauty of their own, especially when sung to the accompaniment of the tempest and the boom of the flopping sail. They are usually the genuine compositions of sailors, and are frequently improvized in part, at least. The melodies are recitatives, which are sung by the best and usually the loudest voice, while the chorus is taken up by all, suiting the labor to the rythm. The are of various kinds, some being adapted to the monotonous clank of the Windlass or pump-brake, others suited to the quick pulls at topsail halliards or main sheet. ...Some captains say a good chanty is worth an extra hand.

1890
Yankee seamen (almost an extinct race now) were then noted for their capstan chants,

1890
...and so the same “chantey,” as the windlass or halyard chorus is called, furnishes the music to as many various indignant remonstrances as Jack can find injuries to sing about.

1890
There is one kind of "fore-bitter," which I think is very much in vogue in the Merchant Service. I think it is called "Shanties," or some such name. It is, however, totally distinct from the old man-of-warsman “fore-bitter." The one I made allusion to was essentially one belonging to the Royal Navy at that time. I don't think I know of any published "fore-bitter," either in words or tune.

1892
However, I will not here assert that the Americans have taught us any particular lesson in the direction of forecastle fare. They invented the double topsail yards ; they invented the “chanty,” the inspiring choruses of the windlass and the capstan, such hurricane airs as “Across the Western Ocean,” “ Run, Let the Bulljine Run!” “ Shanadoah,” “ Old Stormy,” “ Bully in the Alley,” “ Cheerily, Men !” and scores besides;

1892
A year later Dr. Nekle brought to camp a shanty song of more than usual merit, "Rolling Down from Old Mohee," which has since been forgotten, though deserving of preservation.

1892
The loading was done by the canoeists, all hands turning to, the boats and heavy stuff going aboard to the good old shanty, "Heave away, my bully boys..."


1893
The unavoidable flour-barrels came head foremost along a wooden slide this time and a darky on the boat sang an incessant line, "Somebody told me so," as a warning to the men below that another and another barrel was coming. They are fond of chanting at their work, and they give vent to whatever comes into their heads, and then repeat it thousands of times, perhaps. It is not always a pretty sentence, but every such refrain serves to time their movements. "O Lord God! you know you done wrong," I have heard a negro say with each bag that was handed to him to lift upon a pile. "Been a slave all yo' days; you 'ain't got a penny saved," was another refrain: and still another, chanted incessantly, was: "Who's been here since I's been gone? Big buck nigger with a derby on."
...These roustabouts…Though they chant at their work, I seldom saw them laugh or heard them sing a song, or knew one of them to dance during the voyage.

1893
We furled the sails, and then rigged the tackles to hoist the longboat, as she was large and heavy. When everything was ready, the mate sang out, 'Hoist away!" As the tackles were drawn taut, the men called to Stanwood: "Give a shanter, old boy ! " And he sang the following hoisting song, which was chorused by the men:

1893
It was now to be forced into the ship, in the process of stowing by the stevedores, with very powerful jackscrews, each operated by a gang of four men, one of them the “shantier,” as he was called, from the French word chanteur, a vocalist.

1894
IT WAS the intention to give in this edition of "Maritime Melodies" a number of chanties, but without the music, the action and the very spirit of the sea, words are feeble.
The "Chanty," a corruption of the French verb to sing, came from New Orleans, where the French darkies made up songs to suit the occasion as they loaded the Yankee clipper ships with cotton. The Yankee sailor in turn "caught on" and calling their songs "Shanties," made rhymes and fitted them to music that assisted in heaving anchor, setting and furling sails, pumping out the ship, etc. And now the "motif" is explained.
...With the ship, the American sailor has also disappeared. But the Shanty remains. Listen. The fine 100 AI British ship California, a good ship with a good name, but flying the flag of Great Britain, instead of the Stars and Stripes, officered and manned by lusty Britons, good fellows all, but unfortunate in not being born here: The fine ship California is leaving the State for w hich she is named, and on the order to heave up anchor, the Chanty man starts in:

1894
What a picture they made as they swung together at the topsail halyards, their eyes gleaming, with open, thirsty mouths shouting the old shantie, 'Whis—ky John — nie.
...As we pump, the chantie (pronounced shanty) man trolls out some old sea song, and after each line all hands join in the refrain. Some of our men have a large stock of these songs.
...Think of this very slowly chanted, in time to the clank of the pump,
...When I heard an unfamiliar song being chanted this afternoon, I went forward and found the men hauling on two lines that led down to the focsle-hatch...As the hatch is very steep, they had some difficulty in hauling up the horse and its rider properly and in time to the chant. ...Round the deck they went singing 'The Old Horse,' chanting the time-honoured song with all solemnity, making the old horse plunge at times, for they had to pull it along the deck in short jerks to keep time to the tune. ...Under the foreyard the procession halted, and a running bowline was dropped over the horse's head, and Braidy got off, and to a second mournful chant it was hauled up to the yard's-arm.
...Now a chantie is started as the crew haul on the main topsail halyards.
...Chantie man: Ran-zo was a tailor,

1894
As the sailors’ chanties were used to lighten the labor of hauling and heaving before the days of the steam winch and the patent capstan, so were the harvesters’ songs required to help the reapers…

1894
The galley fires were started and coffee was made and served out, reinforced by cigars and cigarrettes from the wine mess stores. The men kept at their work singing cheerily a number of 'Shantee' songs,

1895
The reader said that "Sailors' Chanties" belonged to a time now no more...The "Chanty-man," the chorister of the old packet ship, has left no successors. In the place of rousing "pulling songs" we now hear the rattle of the steam-winch, and the steamwinch or pump give us the rattle of cog-wheels or the hiss of steam instead of the wild choruses of other days.

1895
Charteris quotes Henry Ward Beecher as relating how "many years after his first voyage across the Atlantic, he heard some sailors in a Brooklyn dock singing the same old 'chanty song' that he had heard when ill at sea, and that the mere listening to it produced the creepy feeling of seasickness;"

1896
Sailors' shanties—probably a corruption of chanting—or hauling choruses, not songs, are generally improvised by the “shantie man” who gives them out. The choruses are old and well known to all sailors, but between each pull and chorus the “ shantie man” has to improvise the next line, or compose the “shantie” as he sings it.

1896
The greyness had eaten into us, and the clank of the pump brakes, watch in, watch out, took the place of the cheery, shanty song.

1896
'Bunting topsils' is accompanied by a wild chant, the origin of which is lost in obscurity.
...When in roughest weather storm-stay-sails are hoisted, and short, heavy pulls are needed, they are given to the following curious and very ancient chantie...

1897
As soon as it was dark the fun began. One of the crew dressed as a jockey mounted the horse, and the two were pushed along the main deck in little jerks, followed by the whole crew in a long procession, singing the following doggrel in a slow chanting fashion:

1898
Shanty Songs. Songs sung by sailors at work, to ensure united action. They are in sets, each of which has a different cadence adapted to the work in hand. Thus, in sheeting topsails, weighing anchor, etc., one of the most popular of the shanty songs runs thus :—
...(French, chanter, to sing; a sing-song.)

1898
He was a favourite amongst the seamen on account of his simplicity and good nature, and also because he had a fund of French songs, some of which the rough fellows had turned into chantys or hauling choruses,...

1898
The hauling-song began something like this: "Way-ho!" (jerk), "Way-ho-hu!" (jerk), "O-le-obo-ho!" (jerk), increasing in sound, volume, and power as it progressed; then running into a wordless chant,—a vowel song,—which, with a pulling emphasis, and a melody as weird as a Gaelic psalm-tune, rose and fell like the song of the shrouds when the wind pipes strong.
...The gangway was withdrawn, the lines cast off, the order given to "Heave away on your capstan!" and we hauled slowly through the gates to the tune of the favorite outward-bound chantey:

1898
... besides, he did not have a “shanteeman," a necessity in a boat of negroes but a man who will not paddle with any unnecessary force.

1899
The work is always accompanied by a song called a "shantey" (probably from the French word chanter, to sing).
...Some of the “shanteys" are very musical, but the words are generally absurd.
...The "shanteyman," however, drawled out clear enough, in spite of the howling of the wind—

1899
Streaming with sweat, throwing their bodies about in sheer wantonness of exuberant strength as they hoisted the stuff out of the hold, they sometimes grew so excited by the improvisations of the "chantey man," who sat on the corner of the hatch solely employed in leading the singing, that often, while for a minute awaiting the next hoist, they would fling themselves into fantastic contortions, keeping time to the music.
...Then, to a grunting chantey, the screw was extended to its full length, and another bale inserted.

1899
"'Old on, ye bloody Yank! Hif ye don't like me bloody chanty, then just ye sing us a bloody chanty as ye do like."

1900
Much of the picturesqueness of the old steamboat life on the Mississippi was provided by the negro roustabouts. Their quaint songs and chanties and their good-natured pranks did much to enliven a journey which might otherwise have become monotonous.

1900
Aboardship these songs are known by the name of "chanties"—which is, in all probability, either a sailor's pluralising of our word "chant," or a corruption of the French "chanson."
..."A song, boys, a song! Come, isn't there a 'chanty-man' in the crowd?" In response a negro—he being of a livelier temperament than his white shipmates, despite the fitting melancholy air of his farewell—begins:— We're on the plains of Mexico...

1900 continues