This is probably a parody of the song The Bigler's Crew, transferring the setting from a lumber ship on the Great Lakes to a fishing boat in the North Sea and is likely of British music hall origin. It also often includes a verse of the British variant of The Knickerbocker Line. The publication date shown above refers to Patrick O'Shaughnessy's "Yellowbelly Ballads", although an undated broadside held in the Bodlean Library might be older.