c.1812 as U.S. Navy work song. No clues as to which tune:

““Here, Johnny Bow,” he cried, “up with you!” A little sailor with a fiddle tucked under his chin mounted the capstan. The men with half a cheer set the bars into place, and Johnny Bow, with one foot stamping out the time, struck up “The girl I left behind me,” and the lively rattle of capstan joined in an accompaniment.”
[Midshipman Farragut, Barnes, 1896]
David Glasgow Farragut (1801–1870) - Went to sea at age 11 years. Flag officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.

David Porter (1780–1843) - Farragut's foster father, mentor and Capt. of the USS Essex (1799) c.1812-1814.