I suspect that Melville also had read Marryat and which caused him to write, in Moby Dick,

"…the hands at the windlass, who roared forth some sort of a chorus about the girls in Booble Alley, with hearty good will."

As far as I know, Melville did not ship (i.e. during his experiences that inspired Moby Dick) in vessels with a brake windlass --and-- If this was in reference to "Sally Brown" (what else do we rhyme with "alley" but "Sally"?), it doesn't work with (Melville's) handspike windlass.

Though "anything is possible," probability and Occam's Razor say Melville cribbed it from Marryat and left it appropriately vague ("some sort of chorus").