Seems like we should be able to glean a little more information about this song. The versions in the Digital Tradition are pretty scanty (scanty shanties?). The first version is from Colcord's Roll and Go. The second version is from the Grieg-Duncan Folk Song Collection.
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry:

Roll the Cotton Down

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Roll the cotton down." The young man (from Alabama) joined the (Black Ball) line (and now looks back and describes the curious doings on a Black Ball vessel)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 33-34, "Roll the Cotton Down" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 62-63, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 84-86, "Roll th' Cotton Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 62, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 144-145, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 152-158, "Roll the Cotton Down," "De Runer Von Hamborg (The Runners of Hamburg)" (9 texts-2 in German, 1 tune. The fifth version is basically "Paddy Works on the Railway," sixth is "A Long Time Ago." In the German versions the characteristic line "roll the cotton down" is frequently replaced with "Oh, come, a beer for me.") [AbEd, pp. 123-126]
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 98-99, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 3, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 34, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 38, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text)
DT, ROLLCTTN* ROLLCOTT2*
Roud #2627
RECORDINGS:
Capt. Leighton Robinson w. Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur & Leighton McKenzie, "Roll the Cotton Down" (AFS 4232 B2, 1939; on LC27, in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Long Time Ago" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "Roll, Alabama, Roll" (tune)
cf. "Lower the Boat Down" (similar tune)
cf. "Run, Let the Bullgine Run" (tune)
File: Doe033

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