This song may be sung to the traditional English air 'Blow Ye Winds Westerly'. Other writers have drawn a connection with Green Bushes or The Wagoner's Lad. Bob Dylan used the tune as a basis for his song Farewell Angelina. Judy Collins is accompanied by humpback whales on this song for her 1970 album Whales and Nightingales.
A. L. Lloyd's and other historians identify the author as George Scroggie, a miller from Federate, in the Parish of New Deer, near Aberdeen. It comes from the early 1850s. Tarwathie is also in Aberdeenshire, northwest of the whaling port of Peterhead.