It is a beguiling, if not terribly productive pastime to search for clues to the origins of most traditional chanteys. I'm a native of the State of Maine, from which many ships and many men sailed the world over. I've been looking for years for chanteys that can definitively be said to be of Downeast origins; there are a scant few.

The windbag sailor of the chantey era was a citizen of the world, and his themes were universal: hard work, strong liquor, easy women. The ports he visited, and the landmarks he passed on the way there, show up over and over. But there are really not many that you can point to and say, "That was written by a Mainer, or a Scot, or a Manxman".

Until Richard Branson starts offering time travel trips, we'll have to live with the mystery, eh?

Jerry