An early version of this song can be found in John Ross Browne's Etchings of a Whaling Cruise, 1846. Browne describes the crew meeting at a bar before his first voyage. Captain Bill Salt gives a familiar toast:
Be cheery, my lads, may your hearts never fail
while the bold harpooner is striking the whale!
After the toast was met and glasses were emptied, cigars and pipes were produced. Salt then delivered the Parting Moments "ditty" printed here, which was met with rapturous applause. As the men exit the building one-by-one, the bar-keep calls aside Browne and another naive young sailor, explaining that it is customary for the greenhorns to foot the bill.
The same "song" is printed as a broadside (Firth c.13(234)) in proper English and with a few more verses. It is dated between 1842 and 1855.