The song had become popular as a sea shanty with seafaring sailors by the mid 1800s. A version of the song called "Shanadore" was mentioned in Capt. Robert Chamblet Adams' article "Sailors' Songs" in the April 1876 issue of "The New Dominion Monthly". He also included it in his 1879 book "On Board the "Rocket"". "Shanadore" was later printed as part of William L. Alden's article "Sailor Songs" in the July 1882 issue of "Harper's New Monthly Magazine", and in the 1892 book "Songs that Never Die". Alfred Mason Williams' 1895 "Studies in Folk-song and Popular Poetry" called it a "good specimen of a bowline chant".