After listening to the show, I pulled down the book I am reading, Traditional American Folk Songs (Frank and Anne Warner), and had a tough time finding the song, even though it was everywhere, so varied are the titles. In the intro there is a letter from Lena Bourne Fish (one of the Warners' singers) who asks if they have ever heard "The Weeping Willow Tree" about a ship built in Virginia in the days of Sir Walter Raleigh (same song??). Then, low and behold, under the title of "Lowland Low" (I had thought of every other title, including Turkish Revelry to look under) there is a version by Frank Proffitt. There is reference made in the intro to the song to Child's version "A" from Pepys Ballads (!!!), from a 1682 broadside, which calls the ship the Sweet Trinity (built by Sir Walter Raleigh in the Netherlands).
Anyway, in the Profitt version the "little man" has a "little instrument" just for the use, and cuts "nine gashes" in the "salt water juice". Maybe big gashes?

Yours,

Peter T.