Let me also add my appreciation for the info given above by Mick Pearce. It was a good follow-up to Jim Dixon's 2008 post, which I missed at the time, which I think was the first reference to the appearance of Row On in Arabella Stuart.

I was also interested to see your post above, Rich-Joy, with the reference to the video by MAC. I find their claim, that the poem was written by the captain of the Two Brothers in memory of the sailors of the Essex, totally without merit. Taking verse 1 as a chorus, as most of us do, they sing the last line as "There's dawn beyond the night," rather than the original "Thou must not come tonight." Tim Laycock set the tune, and he recorded it with the New Scorpion Band with the "dawn beyond the night" line, so I assume that he wrote that line and made the change. It does completely alter the sense of the song.