Carter, I think Brand sings "away" and "belay." Bosun's pipes were commonly used only on naval vessels, so I think Brand naively inserted piping for calling, which was the general practice on merchant ships.

                              *

“Taffy Jack,” “Shipmate Will Brown,” in The Riverside Magazine for Young People (Sept., 1870) [referring to 1859]:

“Forty-eight hours after that we were off Sandy Hook with our jib-boom pointing toward the open sea, and all hands on the main topsail halliards, pulling away to the roaring chanty, —

“‘We all of us feel very sad,
        Whiskey, O Johnnie :
To leave our true loves is too bad,
        Whiskey for my Johnnie.’”
                     
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Rutherglen Reformer and Cambuslang Journal (Feb. 24, 1882):

“The following ‘shantie’... is usually sung when setting sail....

Whisky is the life of man! – Whiskey, O! Johnny, O!
Whisky is the life of man! – Whiskey for my Johnny!

[Similarly:]

I’ll drink whisky while I can!...

Whisky killed my old mama!...

Whisky killed my old da-da!...

Whisky gave me a broken nose!...

Whisky made me ‘pop’ my clothes!..."

(To pop = to pawn.)

                            *

New York Daily Tribune (September 9, 1900):


Whiskey is the life of man,
   Whiskey, Johnny;
Whiskey is the life of man,
   Whiskey for me, Johnny!

Whiskey made me go to sea,        
   Whiskey, Johnny;
Whiskey made me go to sea,        
   Whiskey for me, Johnny!

“If the singer be of the common order, he would here tell what he would do were the ocean made of whiskey; how, if he had a ‘whiskey shop,’ he would hang it on a halyard block and haul the men up to it, and more of the same kind till the mate cries ‘Belay!’..."