In Shanties from the Seven Seas (1961), Stan Hugill writes about the song:

"This was also very popular among the timber droghers both in Liverpool and Canadian ports, and was used as both a capstan and runaway song when working cargo. I had my version from an old shipmate called Spike Sennit, who said it was just as popular at sea as in port. The compiler of the Oxford Song Book (II), ...gives a version very similar to mine..."

Ever skeptical of Hugill's loose language, I wonder if he *only* heard the song from Spike Sennit. The first sentence paints it as though he had some broad knowledge about the song, either from firsthand experience and/or documents, but think it could just as well be a conclusion from his reading of the Oxford Song Book with some additional assumptions thrown in.

Hugill presents the song again in Shanties and Sailors' Songs (1969) with no mention of a donkey engine.