You didn't even have to be named "Reuben":

Capt. Charles Henry Robbins (1822-1909), "The Gam" (New Bedford: Hutchinson, 1899), p. 140:

O Johnny was no sailor,
(Renso, boys, Renso)
Still he shipped on a Yankee whaler.
(Renso, boys, Renso.)

He could not do his duty….

And he tried to run away then….

They caught him and brought him back again….

And he said he never would go again….

They put him pounding cable….

And found him very able….

He said he’d run away no more….

He only waited to get on shore….

So when he put his foot on shore….

A-whaling he would go no more….


Robbins went to sea (if we can believe this semi-autobiographical fiction) in 1837. He has whalers singing the chantey while working the windlass to raise a dead whale.

Just when he first heard the chantey, Robbins doesn't say.