How traditional "send down a dove?"

[Calico Jack]

Ahoy, folks.

Tom Lewis in his song "Sailor's Prayer" includes the following chorus:

Oh Lord above, send down a dove

with beak as sharp as razors

to cut the throats of them there blokes

what sells bad beer to sailors.

The credits list written by Tom Lewis, chorus (trad.).

So how traditional is traditional? Lewis himself purports to have found the chorus listed in a book, which itself called the verse "traditional." The book was published in 1968, and was by Charles MacHardy, titled Send down a dove. The book does in fact include the verse, and does call it traditional [although the wings, not beak, were sharp as razors].

But there the trail seem - for me so far - to stop.

So how far back does the verse go? 1968? Earlier? Can anyone find evidence of the verse from before 1968, and if so, how far back? It's a fun bit of verse, and we may use it for "Sunday Service" at some re-enactments, but must of course be able to provide attribution for the actual year of the song.

Hoping some folk here might be able to help trace the verse.

[Calico Jack]

Might trace farther - to harry Cox of Norfolk, who may have sung a similar verse in the 1950s, also calling it "traditional...".