The song is found in the American Songbag by Carl Sandburg.
"One of several in the R. W. Gordon collection, this version (A) is from Frank Haworth of the British Club, Havan, Cuiba, while (B) {The Handsome Young Airman} is from Abbe Niles who comments on how landlubber songs often are in active duty on the high seas and vice versa.'Any living tune is a jack of all trades. This variant of Tarpaulin ajcket ten years ago on the flying fields was current among men who had never heard its original'"
Sandburg's Songbag came out in 1927.
Frank