According to some early collectors, this shanty likely originated in the early post-Napoleonic era. These attributions appear to be based around the content of the song. Gibb Schreffler and others have instead found an origin in the blackface minstrel song Jim Along Josey, likely published by Edward Harper in 1838.
The only pull was on the word Joe, which was shouted or grunted, not sung. Often the names Josey or Rosey were sung.
Aver, in Sharp's version, is Havre.
According to James Madison Carpenter's notes, many sailors listed this as their favorite shanty. Earlier versions had a major key and later versions had a minor key.
In The Making of a Sailor, Harlow's version ends with a rather scandalous verse:
Oh once in my life I married a wife and damn her, she was lazy,
And wouldn't stay at home of nights which damn near set me crazy.
She stayed out all night, Oh hell! what a sight, and where do you think I found her?
Behind the pump, the story goes, with forty men around her.
Away, haul away, oh haul and sing together,
Ch: Way haul away, we'll haul away Joe
Oh, once I had an Irish girl, but she was fat and lazy
Ch: Way haul away, we'll haul away Joe
And then I had a yeller girl, she nigh druv me crazy,
But now I've got a Yankee girl, and she is just a daisy
Once I was in Ireland, digging turf and 'taties
But now I'm on a lime-juice ship, hauling on the braces.
King Louis was the king of France afore the rev-o-lu-shi-on
But Louis got his head cut off, which spoiled his con-sti-tu-shi-on.
Once I married an Irish girl, and her name was Flannigan
She stole my money, she stole my clothes, she stole my plate and pannikin
St. Patrick was a gentleman, he come of decent people,
He built a church in Dublin town and on it put a steeple
Geordie Charlton had a pig, and it was double jointed
He took it to the blacksmith's shop to get its trotters pointed.
...
Oh when I was a little boy and so me mother told me
That if I didn't kiss the girls me lips would all go mouldy.
...
Oh once I had a scolding wife, she wasn't very civil
I clapped a plaster on her mouth and sent her to the divvle.
Ch: Haul away, haul away, haul away, my Rosie,
Way, haul away, haul away, Joe
O you talk about your Aver girls,
And round the corner Sally
Ch: Way, haul away, haul away Joe.
But they cannot come to tea
With the girls in Booble Alley
O! once I loved a negro girl,
And I loved her for her money.
O! once I had a nice young girl,
And she was all a posy.
And now I've got an English girl,
I treat her like a lady.
We sailed away for the East Indies,
With spirits light and gay.
We discharge our cargo there, my boys.
And we took it light and easy.
We loaded for our homeward bound
With the winds so free and easy.
We squared our yards and away we ran.
WIth music playing freely.
Now, up aloft this yard must go,
We'll pull her free and easy.
Another pull and then belay,
We'll make it all so easy.