The most interesting thing about this is really two things - that no ballad sheet versions are known and yet the song was so widespread early in 20th Century that it must have been disseminated in print or be much older than mid-19th. The version commonly sung in Britain is that spread by Ewan MacColl in his performances or in The Singing Island - it is attributed to the singing of one Barney Hand from Belfast )of whom no-one has otherwise heard.)