Whall says the popularity of this song owes much to its good chorus and opportunity for improvisation. One example verse he recalls:
The next came the conger as long as a mile,
He gave a broad grin and continued to smile.
It was sometimes sung with each man in turn taking a verse, and he was expected to give a new fish each time. If the improviser broke down, the chorus promptly chipped in and saved the situation. According to Stan Hugill, "with a good singing crowd that could improvide, the song might go on for hours".
In later days, it was used as a shanty to the tune of Blow the Man Down, and, according to Whall, "using the original chorus of that Black Ball Line song".
Stan Hugill gives 11 verses and his own overview of the many variants for this song:
The best-known version of this song is the one sung in the thirties by the famous Scottish contralto, Katherine Ferrier - "Blaw the Wind Southerly". The River Tyne area of northern England also claims an early version. However, the song moved rapidly across the world, and the Gloucester fishermen of the northeast coast of America soon had their own variant. A faster and musically more complicated number comes from the fishermen of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. England has another variant found in the Bristol Channel ports, but the one we give here probably hailed from the southeast of England.
Hugills says the song was popular in the fo'c'sles of British sailing ships and sometimes used at their capstans and pumps, while Whall gave it as a hauling shanty.
Oh, a ship was rigg'd, and ready for sea,
And all of her sailors were fishes to be
Ch: Windy weather! Stormy weather!
When the wind blows we're all together.
A variant to the chorus was:
Ch: Blow ye winds westerly, gentle south-westerly,
Blow ye winds westerly - steady she goes
O, the first came the herring, the king of the sea,
He jumped on the poop, "I'll be captain," said he.
The next was a flat-fish, they call him the skate,
"If you be the captain, why sure, I'm the mate."
The next came the hake, as black as a rook,
Says he, "I'm no sailor, I'll ship as the cook."
The next came t he shark, with his two rows of teeth,
"Cook, mind the cabbage and I'll mind the beef."
And then came the codfish, with his chuckle-head,
He jumped in the chains: began heaving the lead.
The next came the flounder, as flat as the ground,
"Chuckle-head, damn your eyes, mind how you sound."
The next comes the mack'rel, with his stri-ped back,
He jumped to the waist for to board the main tack.
And then came the sprat, the smallest of all,
He jumped on the poop, and cried, "main topsail haul."
and so on.