Here's the entire performance of yet another "Roll the Cotton Down."
To judge from the variety of unrelated texts (Hugill has several), this must have been a very popular shanty pattern.

This version was sung by J. S. Scott for James M. Carpenter in 1929.
Scott had gone to sea in 1863.


                         ROLL THE COTTON DOWN

                   I am going away to leave you,
                      To roll the cotton down!
                   I am going away to leave you,
                      To roll the cotton down!

          [Similarly:]

                   Oh, fare you well, my true love....

                   For the ship she sails tomorrow....

Sounds like the start of one well-known version of "Shallow Brown."