The song in in one modern form or another must have been widely known by about 1900.

Incredibly Isabel Anderson, an English writer, included stanza one in her children's fantasy "The Great Sea Horse" (1909). Perhaps it was the only part of the song she'd heard. A few words were changed to fit the book's plot:

        As Jack was a-coming, fine beach up and down,       [sic
        He forgot pretty Polly of fair Bedford town.
        As soon as he spied Betty's beautiful face
        He set his three royals and to her gave chase!



In 1912 the American ornithologist Robert Cushman Murphy recorded the following aboard the whaling brig "Daisy":

"[O]ur forty-barrel bull is the talk of the ship. . . .The men were in fine fettle during the cutting-in, and the lusty strains of ‘Sally Brown,’ ‘Whiskey Johnny,’ and ‘Blow the Man Down’ rang out for hours across the empty ocean.

        As I was awalkin’ down Paradise Street -
                Away, ay, blow the man down-
        A flash-lookin’ packet I chanced for to meet.
                Give me some time to blow the man down.

        I hailed her in English, she answered me clear –
                Away, ay, etc.
        “I’m from the Black Anchor bound to the Shakespeare”
                Give me, etc.

        I tailed her my flipper and took her in tow,
        And yardarm to yardarm away we did go.

        I clewed up her courses, to’gans’ls and all –

- but I can write no more without peril of having Anthony Comstock bar my manuscript from the mails!”