"Smell of bilgewater pumped out at Hong Kong"? "Tanned from the tropics"?

These sound to me like "literary" not "folk" phrases.

Most of the lyrics sound to me like Harlow's rewrite of the bawdy song known today as "The Three German Officers." (Not there wasn't just one sailor!) Hugill suggests as much.

Some day I'll release my research into this whole family of songs. Problem is, I've too much information to organize!