It's curious that the most enjoyable shanties to sing are not necessarily the most interesting to listen to. My favourite to sing these days is Yankee Ship ("A Yankee ship came down the river/Shallow, O Shallow Brown/A Yankee ship in the Congo River/Shallow O Shallow Brown"). The tune is, I'm told by my SO, a dreary one to listen to but there's a shift between the two couplets which get me every time. I find I can't listen to much of the new sea stuff I hear because of its overwhelming sentimentality, a characteristic entirely missing from the traditional pieces. The shanties which seemed to work best on the shantysinging on board WAWONA at Seattle Folklife last weekend were the Caribbean ones (such as John Cherokee and Run Come See).