Hi Alan,
I don't have J.Colcord, I took part of this from Doeflinger (& Palmer), where he states "As Miss Colcord has pointed out, it must have been composed before 1859". I belive because the song goes "The fate of Franklin no man (nobody) knows". In 1859 their fate was finnally known. The verse that goes:
"In Baffin's Bay where the whale fish blow", is the last verse in #1 in Doerflinger & the source is 'Ballads & Sea Songs From Newfoundland' by Elisabeth Greenleaf & Grace Yarrow, 1933. The 2nd version, aslo has the title "The Sailor's Dream" has the same verse as the 7th of 9, & he says it's the older of the 2, this one coming from Joseph Faulkner's "Eighteen Months on a Greenland Whaler", 1878.
Barry