Lyr. Add: JOHNNY BOWKER
Davis and Tozer 1887 (1916)

Solo.
Oh, do, my Johnnie Bowker,
Come rock and roll me over,
Chorus:
Do, my Johnnie Bowker, do.

Solo.
Oh do, my Johnnie Bowker,
Come roll me down to Dover,
Chorus:
Do, my Johnnie Bowker, do.

Solo.
Oh do, my Johnnie Bowker,
From Calais unto Dover,

Solo.
Oh do, my Johnny Bowker,
You say you are no rover,

Solo.
Oh do, my Johnnie Bowker,
Come rock and roll me over,

With score, no. 33, p. 64.
Song for setting sail; also used for furling sail.

Davis, Frederick J. and Ferris Tozer, 1887, "Sailors' Songs or 'Chanties,' Boosey & Co., Ltd., London. Revised Edition, 1916.

Lyr. Add: JOHNNY BOWKER (Hugill)

1. Oh! do my Johnny Bowker, come rock 'n' roll me over,
Chorus:
Oh, do me Johnny Bowker do!

2. O do, Johnny Bowker, come roll me down to Dover,
Chorus:
Oh, do me Johnny Bowker do!
3. O do, me Johnny Bowker, let's all go on a jamboree,
4. O do, me Johnny Bowker, the watches are cala-la-shee,
5. O do, me Johnny Bowker, the chief mate he's a croaker,
6. O do, me Johnny Bowker, the Old man he's a soaker.
7. O do, me Johnny Bowker, the bosun's never sober.
8. ---                     I bet ye are a rover.
9. ---                     the sails he's a tailor.
10 ---                     the chips he ain't no sailor.
11. ---                   come roll me in the clover.
12. ---                   come rock an' roll 'er over.
13. ---                   from Calais down to Dover.
14.----                   in London lives yer lover.
15. ---                   the packet she is rollin'.
16. ---                   come haul away the bowline.
17. ---                   we'll either break or bend it.
18. ---                   we're men enough to mend it.
19. ---                   get round the corner, Sally.
20. ---                   let me an' you live tally.
21. ---                   we'll haul away an' bend 'er.

p. 213, with one line of music. Foresheet song for sweating up, i. e., to give the final drag on a halyard; sometimes for bunting.
Alternative titles, Johnny Polka, Johnny Poker.
Perhaps from the old minstrel song, Johnny Boker.
Stan Hugill, 1961, "Shanties From the Seven Seas," Mystic Seaport reprint 1994.      

Lyr. Add: JOHNNY BOKER (Whall)

O do, my Johnny Boker,
Come rock or roll me o-o-ver
O do, my Johnny Boker, do!
With score. Song for short pulls.
W. B. Whall and R. H. Whall, 1910, "Sea Songs and Shanties," Brown, Son & Ferguson, Ltd., Glasgow. 1963 reprint.

Doerflinger (Shantymen and Shantyboys) says "Johnny Boker was one of the many characters shanghaied into shanty lore from the songs of the blackface minstrels, or possibly from Negro folksong, to which both sailors and minstrels were indebted."
"Johnny Boker" was published in "The Ethiopian Glee Book, II, ed. Gumbo Chaff (Elias Howe), Boston, 1848.

In Newfoundland, the chanty was heard as "Jolly Poker." With score, no. 168, p. 339. E. B. Greenleal and G. Y. Mansfield, 1933. "Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland," 2004 facsimile reprint by Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NFLD.