G'day mg,

I would imagine a parody / version / local verse to the well-known Charles Dibdin song The True British Sailor would be obvious fare from Kipling. Dibdin's sea songs were considered by the British Admiralty to be "better than 50 press gangs" at recruiting for the Royal Navy!

For Kiplinhg to throw in a new set of words, related to the story in hand, meant that every reader (then ... in his British readership...) would already hear the tune in their head.

Regards,

Bob