Ever since Heinlein wrote about it, I’ve wanted to read the poem, “The Ballad of Eskimo Nell”. Thanks to the internet, I’ve finally gotten to read the utterly filthy thing. Unfortunately, I can’t find a cite as to who wrote the poem and when they wrote it. It has the flavor of a Robert Service poem, but the content would be unthinkable for him.
To give you an example of the content of the poem:
Now, Dead-Eye Dick was breathing quick
With lecherous snorts and grunts,
So forty butts were bared to view,
And likewise…
and the rhyme is exactly what you’d expect. Here’s a link to the entire poem…and it wasn’t easy to find one that meets the “two click” rule. It’s not for the faint of heart.
So who’s the neglected artiste who wrote this sentimental ditty?
There is some internal evidence – he’s probably Canadian, not just because of the point of the poem (that Canadians are sexually insatiable), but because no American would refer to someone from Texas as a “Yankee” (other than on the ball team). Also, there’s the use of “CPR” (i.e., Canadian Pacific Railway).
It’s a parody of the style of Robert W. Service, but it’s not likely Service wrote it.
After reading the OP and the poem, I looked on Google for the poem. As a slight hijack - is this really a rugby chant/song? It’s soooo long. Do they just chant the whole thing through an entire game?
I believe sometime before World War I, but no one’s sure. The mention of “vacuum cleaner” makes it after 1901 (when the first successful model was mode, though others invented prototypes earlier). “Chatwood Lock” may give a clue to the latest possible date: I don’t know when Chatwood went out of business, though.
One source gives the earliest publication as 1959, but it’s very almost certainly much older. If Heinlein heard it when he was in the navy, it was likely it was being recited before 1940.
Of course, dating is difficult; verses have almost certainly been added to the original. One web page (at http://www.armadillo.net/llewtrah/index.htm ) says it originates from the 1890s.