1904 The Codbanging Song; One verse collected in Harwich, Essex by Ralph Vaughan Williams, as sung by Charles Benham, April 1904.
Charles Edwin Benham JP (15 April 1860 in Colchester, Essex, England – 1 April 1929, also in Colchester) was a journalist who edited for many years the Essex County Standard.

(In 1904, Vaughan Williams made a number of visits to Essex to collect songs, cycling to villages around Brentwood including Ingrave, Willingale, Little Burstead, East Horndon and Billericay. A chance meeting between Vaughan Williams and Charles Benham in Harwich in April 1904 seems very unlikely to me! HP)

"Bushes and Briars - an anthology of Essex folk songs" ; [Codbanging] which comes from "Mr [Hervey] Benham", who says "this song was popular in East Anglia and was sung on arrival with a full ship at Harwich". However Mr Benham could supply only one verse so it is filled out with Bob Hart's version.
Hervey William Gurney Benham (1910–1987) was the son of Sir Gurney Benham and the nephew of Charles Benham. He was the pioneering proprietor of Essex County Newspapers.

Sam Larner; In his notes to Bob Hart's 1973 LP, Bert Lloyd confirms its rarity, adding that Sam Larner of Norfolk knew a bit of it as The Smacksman's Life.
Samuel James Larner (18 October 1878 – 11 September 1965) was an English fisherman and traditional singer from Winterton, a fishing village in Norfolk.

1972 Bob Hart, voice: Cod Banging. Recorded by Tony Engle in the singer's home, Snape, Suffolk, July 1972. A.L.Lloyd noted; In Bob Hart's version, a stanza - the one about the 'big barque ship' - has wandered in from 'The Dolphin'.
Bob Hart was born in 1892 at Sotherton, near Southwold, died at the age of 86 in 1978. Aged 15 he ran away to sea on a Lowestoft trawler and it was whilst working as a fisherman that he learned many of his songs.