From James Beale
Collected by Cecil Sharp, Warehorne, 23rd September 1908
Cecil Sharp MSS, Sharp Folk Tunes CJS2/10/1926
Sharp noted words for the first verse only, probably to record the fact that Mr Beale sang “a-rolling down the tide”, rather than the more usual “rowing down the tide”. The lyrics for this song as collected from other singers are in fact very consistent – see for example the version sung by the Copper Family of Rottingdean in Sussex, https://garrygillard.net/music/coppers/fisherman.html.