The narrative of this slow ballad took many forms, and only a few have been included here. Some forms tell the story of a drowned sailor or a deceased lover. Some forms do not aim to tell a cohesive story.
Professor Gibb Schreffler provides thoughtful context for the song in an article "Twentieth Century Editors and the Re-envisioning of Chanties: A Case Study of 'Lowlands [Away]'". Schreffler advances the viewpoint that the shanty tradition was borne in African-American work songs and minstreldom before being co-opted by sailors and, later, writers. He notes that earlier written versions of the song were based around the line my dollar and half a day, while later versions coerced it into the story-ballad tradition and were rife with plagiarism.
Frank Shay associates Lowlands (II) with American sailors and their grumbling sentiments. "Hoosier" may be an accessible substitute for "white man".