From William Brown Moloney, ex-seaman, in "Everybody's Magazine," 1915:

"Aye, first it's a fist and then it's a fall...
   When you are a sailor aboard a Black Ball...

"The meaning of the word 'blow,' as employed at that time, was to strike, to knock. ...

   "Oh, they gave me three months in Walton's black jail...
   For blowing and kicking that Bobby to kale.
   Oh, give us some time to blow the man down."


But perhaps Moloney's shipmates were really singing in code about raising sail or being hit with whale-spray or doing naughty things or playing the Big Bad Wolf or who knows what else. And they wouldn't let Moloney in on it.

Surely he wouldn't have understood either that "Santa Anna" was really a coded call for slave rebellion, as was suggested on another thread.

Of course, if by "means" we're referring not to communication but to any interpretation that could pop into somebody's head, then "blow the man down" means whatever one imagines it to mean. Humpty-Dumpty suggested this method, and people seem to like it.

In my opinion, most chantey singers didn't much think about what "nlow the man down" meant. If they did, the vast majority were thinking of winds and fists in varying proportions.

Which is good enough for me.