"The High Level Ranters "Ranting Lads" Topic 12TS297 recorded 1975/76. This predates the Palmer source, I think"

Not really. The Valiant Sailor itself was published in 1973. And as for The Ranters' sources, The Minstrelsy as noted above, provides only one verse (verse 1 in the version given by Harry above plus the tune), and Masato has already indicated that Terry's Sea Salt Ballads was the source for Palmer's verse 2 above (containing Druids Bay).

I don't have all the Palmer sources, but he is a well-respected publisher of songs and what he gives you is almost certainly what was in the original sources, even if he has collated the versions. The question of whether the original sources were in some sense correct or not is a different matter.

Mick