There is evidence to show that this once-popular but rarely printed comic song was the work of Petty Officer George Willis, USN, assigned to the Asiatic Fleet in the 1870s. Willis, a Civil War veteran, is also credited with having written the lyrics of the well-known "Cumberland's Crew" in Pensacola shortly after reading of the fight between CSS "Virginia [formerly USS "Merrimack]" and the sloop-of-war USS "Cumberland"

Willis was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1873 for "gallant and meritorious conduct...off the coast of Greenland" while serving aboard USS "Tigress."

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