According to Captian whall, who compiled one of the earlest and best shantey collections, he says it may be a voyageur ( missouri river boatman's song).The main life of the song was lived under sail in the days of squarerigged ships, when the men were leaning hard on the capstan bars and tramping the anchor up from the bottom. This is one of our finest regaldless of the version you sing. According to my book words and melody addapted by John and Allan Lomax. No date. It is a true folk song. bet