Emmie: Check out this Mudcat "John B" thread. State of the art. Spared no expense.
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=32772

Note:
The book's author was Richard Le Gallienne (1866-1947) however it was a reprint of his Coral Islands and Mangrove Trees piece for Harper's (New York.)

The song is Hoist the John B. Sails, a two step for piano, composed by Bostonian bandleader-violinist Ed W. Prouty in 1903 and dedicated to the citizens of Nassau, N.P., Bahamas.

The "Wreck Of" backstory was created in 1927 by the Shaw-McCutcheon families as part of the John B. - Canopus - Watchtower trilogy and made popular by Carl Sandburg's reprint in American Songbag. See here:
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=159532