Frederick E. Harlow's "Chanteying Aboard American Ships" prints an expurgated bawdy version that he seems to have heard in 1876.

Intriguingly, one of Herbert Canfield's informants (1926) believed (on no known evidence) that the song was known "before the Civil War."

It's certainly possible that Bryant had heard the bawdy song in some version and cleaned it up to cash in on the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago.

A clear case of cashing in was "Christofo Columbo Thought the World was Round-o," music & lyrics by “Speed” Langworthy, performed by vaudevillians Gus Van and Joe Schenck (Chicago: Will Rossiter, 1924).

The sheet music calls it "A Popular Version of an Old Sea Chantey." Including encores, Langworthy manages no less than 52 stanzas, only two or three of which are recognizably based on those in the bawdy song.

Langworthy's chorus calls Columbus "That persevering, buccaneering,/ Sailor man Columbo."