The name "Barnacle" Bill was most likely imported into the bawdy song from the rowdy but respectable 1929 rewrite, which also extended and elaborated the tune.

Any version (like Oscar Brand's) that doesn't follow the stanzaic pattern of pavane's broadside (or the shanty version in both Colcord and Hugill) stems chiefly from the 1929 hit by Frank Luther and Carson Robison.