Later mention of the "Campanero (barque)" bound for Rio from Baltimore is in the "North British Daily Mail" (June 15, 1886). A return trip is noticed by the Glasgow Herald (Dec. 24, 1890).

So it seems possible that the voyage in the song took place "just before" the Spanish-American War.

The "Springfield [Mass.] Republican" reported (Feb. 25, 1903) that the Rio Janeiro [sic] trader, Campanero, built at Baltimore in 1859 [is] now a barge abandoned off Lower Canton."