Old Fid is a modern maritime song that spread through English folk music circles.
User "Crane Driver" on mudcat.org gives this account of collecting the full lyrics to Old Fid:
We made contact with the author Bill Lowndes last year, via an internet contact. He and his wife live in quiet retirement in Cornwall, UK - they don't want to be invaded by lots of folkies, so they asked us not to be more specific.
"Old Fid" himself was a retired Norwegian sailor who settled in Bill's town. Bill would see him every day, sitting on a bench staring out to sea, and eventually got to know him and heard his story. The old man would look down at his hands and say "Look at 'em - every thumb a marline-spike and every finger a fid",
which gave Bill his starting point for the song. When he heard our recording (Baggyrinkle - Old Swansea Town), he liked it but said that we, like everyone else, missed out half a verse. Apparently the first person to record Old Fid missed it out, and everyone's version goes back to that one. Bill was a bit upset that his song had been mutilated, sowe said "No problem, give us the missing bit, and we'll put it back in." He did. We have.
This then is the Authorised Old Fid, as dictated to us over the telephone by Bill Lowndes in 2002.