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"The John B. Sails" or "The Sloop John B." has been collected in slightly different versions at least 3 times in the West Indies. The earliest copy is one that I don't know has been printed. It's in Vol. 8, #1887, in the Gordon manuscripts in the Library of Congress Folklore Archive. It was 'Sung by Negros of Bahama Island 1916-1919'. The next is "The John B. Sails" in Sandburg's 'The American Songbag', p. 22, 1927, and the last is of the same title, collected by Alan Lomax , at Nassau, 1935, and given in 'The Folk Songs of North America', p. 530, 1960.