"Give us some time to stow this cargo"
"Give us some time to set this sail"

These sound natural enough to me as language in song. I could elaborate, but it would all just be an inarticulate jumble of what intuitively sounds "natural" to me personally as (American?) English song/poetic rhetoric—and not very persuasive.

If there was a context for the song prior to a work context, maybe it was a play context. A group game. Like, the kids stand around in the circle, one kid stands in the center, they all sing, and another participant tries to knock down the kid in the center. Or an adult fighting game.

No evidence for that, but there is a pattern of songs from this repertoire having a play-song or crossover application, like this stick-fighting song and "Coming Down with a Bunch of Roses" (> "Come Down, You Bunch of Roses" > the folklorized "Blood Red Roses"):
https://youtu.be/LS1McrmSzHA