I find it interesting that the song was bifurcated in lyric...one
clearly a training song about the misery of shore-side life the
other a bit of an homage to a rollicking good time 'round the
Horn in a packet ship. And you usually hear them rather disjointly...
the 'Frisco version is really all about what happens ashore after
a brief account of a miserable 'round the Horn. The seagoing version
details 'diving bows-under with her main skys'l set!' and downplays
the condition of the crew when returning from shore, just mentioning
they've 'shot all their whack and are looking for more.' Overall,
though, the idea seems to be that with its ups and downs the life
of the sailor isn't more than half bad.

Hell, Lord Nelson was always sick as a dog for his first three days
out, so don't feel bad. Fact is, many if not most people, including
sailors, are...

"We singled up and got the tugs alongside
Warped her through the locks and out to sea
With half the crew a-pukin' o'er the ship's side
and the bosun with a rope-end chasin' me.

More rare than a sailor who didn't get seasick was one who'd
mastered DADGAD, methinks.

The song in the original would probably be so down-tempo as
to be intolerable as entertainment. The work it was designed for
was rather slow.

It's a tribute to the structure of these old songs that they
adapt so well to becoming entertainment either in performance
or community singing (sans work).

If you get a chance to hear either Lou Killen's or Alf Edward's
English concertina accompaniments to this, I think you'll enjoy
it.