This is a great song to belt out which I thoroughly enjoyed singing in the Tyneside Maritime Chorus. Quoting from Singing Hinnies Book 2, Captain Bover was commander of the Pressgang on the Tyne for many years. A marble plaque in St. Nicholas' Church (now Cathedral) reads: "Near this place lie the remains of John Bover, Esq., Post Captain in the Royal Navy, who died 17th May, 1782, having for several previous years filled with the highest credit the arduous situation of regulating officer of this Port."
Well, in the song, Captain Bover is a baddie whereby good, honest sailormen daurna come ashore for Bover and his gang.
Referring to Captain Bover, John Stokoe in hie Songs and Ballads of Northern England (1893) wrote that this beautiful fragment was picked up by Mr. Thomas Doubleday from a woman singing it in the streets. All attempts to recover more of it have been fruitless . Captain Bover was commander of the Pressgang on the Tyne for many years, but appears to have carried out harsh laws as leniently as he could to be effective. He died 20th May 1792. [Please note the discrepancy! - Not yet (April, 2013) resolved,]
This song is also given in the Northumbrian Minstrelsy.
This song may be found in the Tyneside Maritime Chorus songbook

Lyrics