A few more observations having compared all of the earlier versions.

The chorus is just given as the second stanza in most early versions, but Huntington 1769 gives it as the chorus. Could this just be Huntington bowing to modern versions? Chappell and the broadsides and Dixon just have it as the second verse. Anyone got access to the original 1769 manuscript?

The theme of the song is not that exciting in terms of folksong. One can understand it being sung by RN officers aboard along with Dibdin songs, but it tells of no Naval engagement, is a bit jingoistic, but generally just describes a pretty uneventful passage.

The actual text is quite stable apart from the obvious mondegreens.

There is an important difference in the 1769 version. It lacks the second stanza and expands the last stanza into 2 stanzas. One could easily imagine that being the case with the original and because this is so repetitive it was shunted into one stanza by later singers/printers. I'll post this version shortly.