Hugill's references to this song are contradicted by some old whalermen I knew in England when I was a boy. These men told me the song was about killing whales. In the early morning or late afteroon the sun shining through the bloody spray that the dying whales blew out of their blow holes as they breathed their last reminded the men of Roses and pinks and posies growing in the garden. As the whales slowly died, the spray got less and less. This made the mens job of towing the whale to the ship easier; and therefore was something they all wished for. Hence the line "Go down you blood red roses go down! Yours, Aye. Dave