HiLo: "I always thought it alluded to death. I suppose I took that meaning for granted as it seems to be the theme of the whole piece. I find your reference to a "surface" meaning very interesting, can you explain a bit more. Do you mean a more literal meaning as opposed to a metaphorical one?"

There's no question that the 'call' is to death/afterlife - metaphorically. I intentionally avoided using the term 'literal' meaning, choosing 'surface' meaning, because I thought that in this poem there might be disagreement as to what constituted its 'literal' meaning - but, yes, that's what I meant! So, on the 'surface', you have a guy about to get on a ship that will cross the bar to get out to sea, and he hopes it goes smoothly and peacefully over that bar, etc. My point is that since all the other elements of the 'surface' setting and action would have been immediately familiar (presumably) to a Victorian reader, the 'call' must likewise have been familiar - as a specific call you would hear in that situation - as opposed to a random unexplained call that is there only to serve as a metaphor.

The idea of a last call for passengers makes sense - even a call for one specific passenger ("Hey you - with the scraggly beard and big black hat - are you coming or not?). And that does seem the sort of thing a Victorian would get right away - although I don't recall it being mentioned in any of the old songs ....