Steve, "Mobile Bay" (pp. 40-41) is otherwise known as "John, come tell us as we haul away."

First stanza (of eight):

Were you never down in Mobile Bay?
    John, come tell us as we haul away.
A-screwing cotton all the day?
    John, come tell us as we haul away.

    Aye, aye, haul, aye,
    John, come tell us as we hoist away.

After the expected reply in stz. 2 ("Oh! yes, I've been in Mobile Bay"), the words become romantic and sappy.

"Eight Bells" (pp. 46-48) is the forebitter often sung by Stan Hugill, commencing, "My husband's a saucy foretopman,/ A chum of the cook's don't you know?" Four stanzas.

**********

It now seems that the essentially definitive Third ed., dated in our earlier thread to "1906," actually appeared so early as 1891.

The words-only so-called "Fourth Edition" is advertised, e.g., in The Guardian (Feb. 2, 1897), p.4.

On Oct. 22, 1892, p. 4, the Guardian identifies "Lieut. F. J. Davis" as "the author of 'Fifty Sailors' Songs or Chanties.'" This can only be a reference to the Third ed.

Music historian James J. Fuld, in his meticulous "Book of World Famous Music" (p.206) draws on information from Boosey & Co, the publishers, to date the Third ed. to 1891.

Either '91 or '92 comports well with the Third Ed. "Preface," which states that it is published "within a short time after the appearance of the second." The 2nd Ed., now apparently unobtainable, is dated by Fuld to Feb., 1890. It contained sixteen more songs than the 1st Ed. of 1887.

Since the gap between Ed. 2 and Ed. 3 is only one or two years (rather than fifteen), the question of which songs were added in Ed. 3 begins to seem less than consequential. A total of twenty-six were added between 1887 and 1891 (or '92).