OK I showed it to my mum, she said:

She remembers it being sung by my Great Grandad, so it isn't the spinners.

Dave the gnome is probably right about Blue DBs, but (in my mum's words) he's a typical bloody collonial! At least us Liverpool Micks didn't get scurvy. Liverpool Seamen regarded the sailors from London as 'soft southerners' and called them "Limehouse Dandys". So my mum reckons it is Limehouse touches. She also said that the singer had to be a Limehouse dandy, because Liverpool seamen didn't wear shoes, they dressed properly, on land they wore clogs.

She also said that The Black Ball Line got its name from the fact that they started in business by transporting convicts, (I wonder if it should be Black Ball & Chain Line) They were called bloodboats because of this, so the quote, to quote my mum is **** (censored). The Champion was the fastest ship of her days, and the Line employed only the best seamen to man her, they wouldn't have kept the good crews by treating them like shit. If they didn't have the best crews, they wouldn't have got the best speeds, the champion did Liverpool to Melbourne in 83 days.

The Champion was a cargo clipper, not a packet, so the crew were not packet rats.

Each ship usually employed a person, who was a token seaman, (didn't actually do any work), he was in fact a bare knuckle fighter for inter-ship matches.

There were no Americans on the Champion, they were mostly Liverpool Irish. Although It was built in the States, it was built for an English company, and didn't visit America again until after it was sold off.

Lastly, she said My great grandfather, like the rest of the crew, got a lime ration from the line which was standard practice, and wrecks the idea of lime juice touches.

She also said she still has somewhere his paybook, can't wait to see it.

Regards

Jon