I finally got around to recording a MP3 of this ballad and this link should take you directly there: Charley Noble Website

The tune is after "Darling Nellie Grey."

However, in searching the forum to find this thread I believe I'm now able to unravel the mystery of where the captain's pet expression "sail chalk-ginger blue" came from. There are several threads, one titled "Folklore: The Cake-Walk & Other Plantation Dances" and the other "Walking On The Green Grass Thread." Apparently "Ginger Blue" is a reference to some Black people as in the old African American folk song: "Gooseberry Wine." Furthermore in some cakewalk dances, and probably earlier dances, the expression "Oh walk chalk, Ginger Blue!" comes up meaning to "walk as carefully as they would walk doing the chalk line dance." So it seems likely to me that the captain picked up this expreession at some minstrel show, which were quite common in the early 1850's even in Maine, and applied it to tearing along at a fast pace sailing.

So much for all the other explanations.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble