To add to Dan Keding's comments above; In "Songs of the American Sailormen," Joanna C. Colcord says about the song:
"'Greenland Fishery' or "The Whale' was not more popular on whaling ships than in the ships of the merchant marine. It arose in the British, not the American, whaling trade, probably in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and in the earlier British versions, the ship's name, the Lion, and the captains's, Speedicut, are both preserved."

I've never seen or heard the versions that mention Captain "Speedicut", but I love the name.

Rick