Here's a 2005 post from Joe Offer about the song "Sail Away Ladies" that was published in The Traditional Ballad Index:

thread.cfm?threadid=84871#1569679 "RE: Lyr Req: Sail Away Ladies . . ."

Here's a brief excerpt:
"DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with floating verses: "Ever I get my new house done/Sail away, ladies, sail away/Give the old one to my son/Sail away...." "Don't you worry, don't you cry... You'll be angels by and by" Etc. "Chorus: "Don't'ye rock 'em, di-de-o (x3 or x4)".
AUTHOR: Words assembled by Uncle Dave Macon"

**

In the beginning post of the "Origins: Sail Away Ladies" thread on Dec 31, 2006, Richie notes that "It seems the first version of Sail Away Ladies is found in Talley's Negro Folk Rymes". Though Richie gave 1920 as that book's publication date, it was actually 1922.

In that same thread Ritchie shared the lyrics to a version of Sail Away Lady that was recorded by Van Morrison.

thread.cfm?threadid=97649#1923684

Ritchie indicated that he got those words from an online site.

I found that site {or another similar one}. Here's that link:

http://www.bluelyrics.net/v/van_morrison_lyrics/dont_you_rock_me_daddio_lyrics.html

I want to focus on Van Morrison's and others' indication that this song is "traditional".

I don't dispute the fact that this song is traditional. But "traditional to whom?" Or what kind of traditional?" If the citation was given that this is a traditional American {meaning UnitedStater} song, I would further ask, from which population or populations did this song come.

It seems to me that the origins of this "traditional" tune is likely to have been African Americans.

**
In one of those other threads listed above I saw some mention of this song coming from ministrel traditions. And in the description of a YouTube clip in which fiddlers played this tune, the writer describes "Sail Away, Ladies" as a bluegrass tune.

All of these descriptors can be correct at the same time. However, given the fact that there were Black "blackfaced" minstrels, and that White "blackfaced" ministrels lifted much of their material from Black people, and given the fact that bluegrass music owes a huge debt to 19th century Black secular dance music, it seems to me that failure to mention the probable Black roots of this song in folk music indexes and summaries is to do a great disservice to this song's creators.

I believe that Black folks have to do a better job of claiming and reclaiming our heritage.

Since the 1980s, the Ghanaian Akan adinkra symbol "Sankofa" has joined the Egyptian "ankh" and Akan "kente cloth" as a widely used pictograph that represents African American pride in African culture. Since the 1980s, "Sankofa" has also been used as the name for all kind of afrocentric African American cultural, community, and arts groups. Sankofa is a symbol of the importance of learning from the past. In one of its picture forms, Sankofa is shown as a bird who is facing forward but whose head is turned backwards. This is an illustration for the proverb that is often given as "It is never to late to go back and claim it". http://www.welltempered.net/adinkra/htmls/adinkra/sank.htm

-snip-

I take this charge seriously because I grew up in a time when all kind of folks denied that Black people created anything of value, or all kind of folks limited African Americans musical creative products during the centuries of slavery to spirituals.

Some people {who are non-Black and who are Black} still believe that to this day...