Charlie--

Any idea about the "we were soon slipping up to our port"? I'm unclear whether that was always usually done with a windlass (or capstan) or if it was also done by hand (hauling). The passage mentions windlass for getting up the anchor, but I don't think it necessarily implies it for what follows.

Lighter--

Oops, sorry, you said that in your original post! Another late-night goof on my part.
When I see only titles mentioned, though, I begin to suspect they may have been noted from recent published works.

"Mobile Bay," IMO is a stand-out title, and though Williams may have sung it, it may also reflect the recent mention (1909) in Whidden's (Boston-published) book. It would of course be more fascinating if somehow both men being from Mass. there was some correlation between that and knowing "Mobile Bay." [Davis and Tozer may have been the only other text to mention "Mobile Bay" at this point.]

The "California Gold" and "Banks of Sacramento" may be duplicates -- I suppose now you are saying it's like listing both "Santa Anna" and "Plains of Mexico." When I first read your post I thought you were referring to the 1906 Hutchison article I posted, in which he has these two different choruses, one after another:

Good-bye, my love, good-bye,
I cannot tell you why,
I 'm off to Californy
To dig the yellow gold.

and

Blow, boys, blow,
For Californy, O!
We're bound for Sacramento
To dig the yellow gold.

The second doesn't quite fit "Sacramento," but otherwise it suggests it. I imagine the first one could be titled "California Gold." Therefore, I wondered whether this grouping of the two, title-only, by Williams, might have reflected some reading he did. He need not necessarily have read Hutchison; the latter seemed to have drawn most of his chanty examples from print, so there might be another source.

Then again, it may just me being way too skeptical, again.