"Johnny, Come Down the Backstay" /John Dameray / John Damaray

Print: Hugill; Doerflinger
Performers: The Keelers (1993)/Johnny Collins; Cztery Refy (awesome Polish version); Pint & Dale (1991); Gibb Sahib

Notes:

There are similarities in sources of this to "Come Down You Bunch of Roses" -- except in this case, the chantey never go popularized and given a renewed life and new trajectory. "John Dameray" came from the same 1893 Silsbee manuscript from which Doerflinger got "Bunch of Roses." However, also like with Bunch o Roses, Hugill was able to provide an oral version as gotten from Harding.

The buck seems to have stopped there. I've no evidence so far to suggest that Harding's oral version has been passed on aurally, being revived from text only later on.

Just a WAG, but might "Demaray" be a reference to Demerara, along the lines of "John Kanaka", "John Cherokee," and "Essequibo River"?

Gibb