Oscar Brand appears to be the supplier and the most likely the creator of the "Haul on the sheets" chorus. He recorded his version, "You're a Liar," on "Bawdy Sea Shanties," in 1958. Seagoing 'Catters will recognize that "Water the decks with brine" makes no nautical sense whatsoever. Legman wrote that the song's original chorus was always dysphemistic.

Robert W. Gordon collected a version of the song from an old American sailor on the West Coast around 1920. The filed recording and Gordon's transcript were at one time in the Folk Music Archive of the Library of Congress, but have vanished since then - without a trace, it would seem.