If you can hang on for a short while there is a book on the way from Katie Howson and Co, I think via either the East Anglian Musical Traditions Trust or the Howson's Veteran label all about songs and tunes popular with the traditional players in East Anglia, and I believe that Oh Joe, The Boat is Going Over is featured in some depth. The original song is of music hall origins and many different versions - presumably due to it being passed around by ear and after varying quantities of beer have been recorded together with quite a lot of lyrical variations. The Musical Traditions website had an article about this which should still be accessible. The aforementioned Veteran label do a good double cassette (not on CD) of archive recordings of East Anglian traditional melodeon players such as Suffolk's Oscar Woods and some of the variants can be heard on that.
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