The earliest collected full version was sent to Robert Gordon about 1928 from a reader of his column in Adventure Magazine. Though no tune is given, the chorus suggest the "Bonnie Dundee" tune used by William Laurie. Ed Cray printed the text in 1969:

                THE GUN TACKLE FALL

Just listen to me and a story I'll tell,
About an adventure that did me befall      
As I was out cruising the town for to spree
I met a fair lass goin' wing and wing free.

    Singin' fal-diddle-laddidie,
    Fal-diddle-laddidie
    Folderol-day, di-doodle-die-day.         

Now the country she came from I couldn't tell which,        
But judged by her appearance I think she was Dutch,
For she flew the tricolor; her masts they were low;
She was round in the counter and bluff in the bow.

    Singing, etc.
        
"Oh, what is your cargo, fair maiden," I cried,
"I'm sailing in ballast, kind sir," she replied,
"And I'm as fast-going clipper as ever was seen,
And I'm just fit for you for my hold is swept clean."

    Singing, etc.

So I handed me hawser and took her in tow,
And yardarm in yardarm away we did go.          [sic
We chaffed on so lightly, so frisky and gay
Till we came to an anchor down Ratcliffe Highway.

    Singing, etc.

She took me upstairs into a snug room,
And into her parlor I run my jib-boom.        
She took down her topsails, her staysails and all,
Clapped her lily-white hand on me gun-tackle fall.

    Singing, etc.

Then I fired away at her all to me desire,
And all the night long I kept up a sharp fire.
My shot-locker got empty and me powder was spent,
And me gun it wanted spongin' for 'twas choked in the vent.
   
    Singing, etc.

Says I, "Fair Lass, now it's time to give o'er,
For between wind and water I've sculled you ashore."
And I never before saw shots fired so well,
But she had a hole in her counter to sink her to -- Jerusalem!

    Singing, etc.

In this version, so far from being a victim, the singer gloats over having "sunk" the woman.

"Wing-and-wing" is a 19th century phrase meaning sailing "directly before the wind, with the foresail hauled over on one side and the mainsail on the other." "Free" is added for the sake of rhyme.

"Dutch" usually meant German. In that case the tricolor was black, white, and red. Here it may refer to a fancy bonnet, facial makeup - or nothing in particular. One of Gordon's correspondents apprised him of a sailors' proverb, "Swedish matches, Norway sailors, German whores."

"In ballast": laden with ballast only and no cargo.

"Yardarm and yardarm": sailing so close that the ends of yards touch or cross.

"Gun-tackle fall": the loose end of a rope belonging to the tackle used for moving a ship's gun.