F. P. Harlow included "Riding on a Donkey" in the c.1928 manuscript for his 1928 book The Making of a Sailor. The manuscript, in typescript, was titled "Chanteying on the Ship Akbar," with "The Making of a Sailor" (later, presumably) written in hand above. Most of the chanty material in the manuscript, however, did not make it into the 1928 book.

I have photographs of the table of contents of the manuscript (The Making of a Sailor) but, alas, no image of the page where the song appears. In the table of contents, it is indicted "Halliards."