A favorite in the merchant service and the Banks fishermen, this song is noted in Kipling's "Captains Courageous". The Boston Come-All-Ye is the more American title. The chorus comes from a Scottish (or perhaps Tyneside) fishing song, "Blaw the Wind Southerly" (Roud 2619). The earliest extant print source is an 1834 publication called The Bishoprick Garland by Cuthbert Sharp.
Joanna Colcord's version differs almost entirely from Captain Whall's.