Surely you mean Tink Tillet? Wanchese, North Carolina. In any event, the song is known in a great many versions which long predate the Frank Warner/Tink Tillet recording. EG., Gale Huntington (Songs the Whalemen Sang) reports 2 versions found in whaling ship's logs dating from the 1820s., I doubt Tink Tillet's version could be could considered an "original".