 This also fits in with the alternative wording "give me the strength" rather than "give me the time" to blow the (not "a") man down.An article by Felix Riesenberg, who trained and served as an officer in the Merchant Marine in the 1890s, depicts earlier sailors singing these plainer work lyrics not specifically about the Black Ball line.The men are raising the topsail on a merchant ship to get under sail from New York to Liverpool, with the chantey led by a sailor named Jimmie