The accordion was an important British folk and popular instrument from the mid-19th century on, and also very much a sailors' instrument. Roberts, who worked on sailing cargo wherries much of his life, was a fine melodeon player and a singer with a very wide repertory: a hilarious epic about a North Sea oil rig; "The Grey Hawk," of Renaissance origin; "The Foggy Dew" in an eastern English version; shanties and more.