c.1833
“A Man Overboard!
...The whaling barque Diana of London, Capt. Harriot, some twenty-three years ago, was in the Sooloo Sea with a 90 bbl. sperm whale alongside….

...The men then resumed their stations at the windlass; but, instead of shipping the handspikes, faced aft, without exchanging a single remark with one another. The mates were over the side on the stages, ready to cut in, but, like the men, remained silent; the captain walked the quarter-deck, deeply affected; and even the men at the mast heads looked down in sadness. All were dumb. This silence remained unbroken nearly five minutes, when the captain, as if starting from a sleep, sung out––“Hook on.” Silently a boat-steerer lowered himself upon the whale, adjusted the hook in the rising piece, sung out “Haul taut,” which was followed by another order, to “heave away the windlass.” The men took to their handspikes; clank, clank, revolved the windlass; but no song. “Heave away, my boys,” (our best songster,) “give us a song!” But Dick was in tears; and when he attempted to sing, the “Yo, heave O,” seemed to stick in his throat.

“Heave cheerily, my lads,” again shouted the captain, springing forward himself and seizing Dick's handspike. “Heave, O, eve O!” he took-up the broken sounds, and as he was an excellent singer and full of life, by his ready example and encouragement, soon brought the men into working order.”
[Supplement to the Connecticut Courant, vol.XXI, no.10, 3 May 1856]