John Burgess...lost his life overboard..."

In the light of the verse below (which isn't the one in the DT, but I think I've heard it more often), the question occurs, "Did he fall, or was he pushed?":

"I have signed on a Yankee Clipper ship
Davy Crockett is her name
And Burgess is the Captain of her,
He's a bastard, and the Mate's the same.