Doerflinger collected his version from Richard Maitland, who was also recorded by Alan Lomax at Sailor's Snug Harbor, New York, in 1939. Maitland sang the song aboard ship in 1877 and heard it sung by Mobile Bay cotton-stowers around the same time. Another American-centric fragment exists in Captain Felix Reisenberg's Under Sail, 1919.
Doerflinger gives two related songs in Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman under the forebitter title Mainsail Haul. The performers are Capt. Patrick Tayleur and William Laurie at Snug Harbor, NY. These versions each tell very different stories about ill-fated enlistments. Doerflinger also points us to Baltzer, Bone, and Sampson for further reference. There are at least three notable distinctions between the forebitter Mainsail Haul variants and the capstan shanty Paddy Lay Back:
The version by Jim Mageean and Johnny Collins on Coming of Age seems to have served as a model for other musicians. In their liner notes, they refer to the song as a British capstan shanty which began life as the Western Ocean packet ship forebitter Mainsail Haul.
Versions that mention the Chinchas are referring to the guano trade based out of the three Chinchas Islands, off the southwest coast of Peru. Peru began exporting guano from the islands in 1840, and the Chincha Islands War (Spanish-South American War) was fought as Spain attempted to re-established control over former colonies.
I was broke and out of a job in the city of London;
I went down the Shadwell Docks to get a ship
Paddy, get back, take in the slack!
Heave away your capstan,heave a pawl, heave a pawl!
'Bout ship and stations, there, be handy,
Rise tacks 'n' sheets, 'n' mains'l haul!
There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the basin.
Shipping master told me she was going to New York!
If I ever get my hands on that shipping master,
I will murder him if it's the last thing that I do!
When the pilot left the ship the captain told us
We were bound around Cape Horn to Callao!
And he said that she was hot and still a-heating,
And the best thing we could do was watch our step.
Now, the mate and second mate belond to Boston,
And the captain b'longed in Bangor down in Maine.
The three of them were rough-n'-tumble fighters.
When not fighting amongst themselves they fought with us.
Oh, they called us out one night to reef the tops'ls.
There was belayin' pins a-flyin' around the deck.
We came on deck and went to set the tops'ls.
Not a man among the bunch could sing a song.
Oh, the mate he grabbed ahold of me by the collar.
"If you don't sing a song I'll break your blasted neck!"
I got up and gave them a verse of "Reuben Ranzo."
Oh, the answer that I got would make you sick.
It was three long months before we got to Callao,
And the ship she was a-called a floating hell.
We filled up there at Callao with saltpetre,
And then back again around Cape Horn!
or
We filled up with saltpetre to the hatches,
And then bound back around Cape Horn to Liverpool.
It was a cold and dreary morning in December (December)
And all of me money it was spent (spent, spent)
Where it went to, I can’t remember (remember)
So down to the shipping office I went (went, went)
Paddy lay back, (Paddy lay back)
Take in your slack (take in your slack)
Take a turn around your capstan heave a pawl.
'Bout ship, stations, boys, be handy (be handy!)
We’re bound for Valparaiso ‘round the horn
Well it seems there was a great demand for sailors (for sailors)
For the colonies, and for Frisco and for France (France, France)
Well, I shipped aboard the limey barque the Hotspur (the Hotspur)
And got paralytic drunk on my advance (vance, vance)
Well, I joined her on a cold December morning (morning)
A-flapping of me flippers to keep me warm (keep me warm)
With the south cone hoisted as a warning (a warning)
To stand by the coming of a storm (storm, storm)
Well, I woke up in the morning stiff and sore (sore)
And I knew that I was outward bound again (bound again)
And a voice come a-bawling at the door (door)
Lay aft men, and answer to your name (to your name)
Now it was on the quarter deck when first I seen ‘em (seen 'em)
Such an ugly bunch I never seen before (seen before)
Cause there was a bum and stiff from every quarter (quarter)
And it made my poor old heart feel sick and sore (sore, sore)