Ellie: Your link doesn't work for me. If it's not Heilner's Adventures in Angling could you please post the title and author here? (see above: 16 May 16 - 10:24 PM)

The Miami-Nassau Ballymena packet boat was quite well known in its day. Notorious even. No mystery there.

I read Heilner as referring to the tune, not the lyrics or the vessel. For the melody to have been adapted/adopted from elsewhere would have been normal for the genre.