Greetings to You all Mudcatters! As I have seen, there are many wise heads here.. So, I have been wrestling with an Estonian song, that must have somekind of forign roots. The key, as I think, is in the refrain, that in estonian is: "sing saale proo" (pronounced the same way as in english sing(sing); saale(a as "aron"); proo (both with o, like "pork" and o, like "pool"). There are linguistic and really ineresting theories, but they are not bulletproof, so, my guess is, that it can be related to a song, that has been written by Norwegian poet Henrik Wergeman;

Afsted til Frankrig! Vive la France!
Sing, Sailor! oh!
Mit raske Skib, begynd din Dands !
Sing, Sailor! oh!

And in another poem Wergeman uses English lyrics:

Ho, Johnny! Ho!
How do you do?
Sing, Sailor, oh!
Well! Toddy is the sorrows' foe!
Sing, Sailor, oh!

Both in Estonian and Norwegian refrains contain also a word "Hurrah!" in some verses..

Ring a bell anyone?

All references, although in estonian, but anyway, there are only thoughts, so they dont help much, are at:

http://meestelaul.metsatoll.ee/foorum/read.php?9,5061,5988

Yours, pocketfolklorist,
Lauri Õunapuu