Stan Hugill translates this halyard shanty from Capt. Armand Hayet's collection. Hugill writes,

It has as its theme the fact that "ladies of quality" are above the gaces des quais, the common or garden-variety sailor's girls.

Our hero knows his place - he should not be deigning to try his luck with such a lady; for him the common trollop, the whores of the wharfside of sailortown. Many sailorsongs have this theme. On the other hand there are those songs in which Jack (or Jean, or Jan) manages to outwit the type of gallant that such a lady of quality, under normal circumstances, prefers - someone of her own class - and he manages, by subterfuge, to get the dainty lady into his arms. In this latter class of song we have: Do Me Amma, Jack the Jolly Tar, and Yarmouth Town.