The only American traces I've seen of "On Board a Man-of-War" are as follows:


New-York American (Apr. 20, 1827):

"Sailors, sailors, tell me true,
What is it they give to you,
What is it they give to you,
On board of a man of war, boys!"

[This is taken without acknowledgment from a British book, Robert Pearce Gillies's "Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean," Vol. II (1826).

Missoula, Montana, "Missoulian" (Mar. 23, 1902):

"Those Missoula boys who have enlisted in the navy will find it somewhat different than in the days of wooden walls when, in the language of the Jacky, it was: 'Walking of the decks through and through, drinking of the grog and the good grog too, this is the fare we have for you on board of the man of war boys.'"

(Words not noted elsewhere.)