Well, the thing is, there's a difference between singing songs in a historical re-enactment context where you're putting yourself forward as a character of a hundred and forty years ago, and performing old songs as a 1990's version folksinger to a modern audience. The singer has the moral right to adapt the song to circumstances.

For the sake of historical accuracy, I agree with you that when republishing a song with a known author and a verifiably "authentic" text, the original lyrics should be presented if legally and ethically possible, and suggested changes or additions should be marked as such. (yup, as in the much-reviled Rise Up Singing). But insisting that the only right way to perform a song is "like it was wrote, boys", including terms that are now offensive, is realistically to condemn it to non-performable artifact status instead of living song.

Kat, thanks for your comments, but I gotta say changing whaling songs is going too far. it would be easy enough to fool a gullible audience into believing a "Nantucket sleighride" is a pleasant social activity held on an island in winter ...though as a class-conscious person I've always wondered the captain really said

"To lose four men of my gallant crew,
It grieves me ten times more, brave boys...

or if it was:

"To lose that whale, the captain cried,
it grieves me ten times more brave boys..."

Now that I have as usual carefully staked myself out in the middle of the field, please take turns attacking... or better yet, truce? I think all our minds are made up pretty firmly.

Bill