Actually, the original version of the song that was written by Ewan MacColl that was written in 1968, from what I've researched, only has nine verses. The song was really about a friendship that didn't last very long. Ewan wrote this after seeing the movie Mary Poppins. He was inspired by the part when Mary told the children, "I shall stay until the Wind Changes." It was at the time of the initial publishing of this song, that the girl that Ewan met at Woolwich Pier on the banks of the Thames River, who was really just a good friend of his, told him, I shall stay until the tide turns. The verses that mention places like Shadwell Dock, Limehouse Reach, Blackwell Point, Whopping, and some others, were written in 1970. These verses were thrown in by a local Londoner who read a tabloid story in the London Times, which claimed that Ewan MacColl wrote this song about a love affair that he was having with another woman, while still married to Peggy Seger!