It was composed by Chief Justice Francis Forbes in 1820 and published in a piano arrangement by Oliver Ditson of Boston.
[1] Originally composed as a dance, it was treated as a march by the soldiers of Royal Newfoundland Regiment during World War I; it later became the Regiment's authorized march.
As a Regatta tune it is more popularly known as "Up The Pond", and is traditionally played as the crews pass the bandstand on their return to the stakes.
An entirely different "The Banks of Newfoundland" is a song in ballad form, created as a parody of "Van Dieman's Land."
It voices the lament of a sailor on a voyage from Liverpool to New York, on which one must pass the cold Grand Banks.