"The Banks of Newfoundland" is the title of at least six different songs. These are not variations on a single tune, but entirely different songs with different airs and lyrics. All share a common theme – the dangers of fishing or sailing off the coast of Newfoundland – but none are very similar. Edith Fowke suggested this abundance of songs existed because the waters off Newfoundland are an interesting and dangerous place. "The Banks of Newfoundland" is an old forebitter often used as a capstan song. It was really a parody of an older forebitter, itself originally a shore ballad called "Van Diemen's Land", a song often sung in Liverpool and as a forebitter often heard in Liverpool ships. This is the first of two versions in Hugill's book. It appears in the Roud Folksong Index as #1812. It was printed in Hugill's Shanties from the Seven Seas (1987). It was recorded by Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd's Blow Boys Blow (1957) and a number of others.