There is some information about this song in "Bushes and Briars - an anthology of Essex folk songs" which comes from "Mr Benham", who says "this song was popular in East Anglia and was sung on arrival with a full ship at Harwich". However Mr Benham could supply only one verse so it is filled out with Bob Hart's version.

Closer examination shows that this "Mr Benham" was Hervey Benham, author of several books about sailing life on the east coast. This is not Charles Benham from whom RVW collected it, although he may be a relative - which seems very likely if the song was collected from the newpaper proprietor henryp mentions, since Hervey Benham was also a local newspaper editor.