It has always been my understanding that A. L. LLoyd was the only person to have claimed "collecting" this song. Except for the fragment in "Moby Dick" (in the Extracts chapter at the beginning: "So be cheery, my lads, let your hearts never fail, While the bold harpooner is striking the whale!") To my knowledge no other printed version of this song has been found -- except for the Lloyd version. If there is an earlier collected version-- I would really like to find it !! It has always been my suspicion that Lloyd expanded on the Melville fragment.

Dave