I was just taking a break from reading the very literate and romantic 1886-87 journal of Daniel McNab, a seaman from Malagash, Nova Scotia, when I read (above): "Combined with the slightly affected wording of 'what care we for that sound' ... , perhaps this suggests the song wasn't written by a real sailor, but by someone of a more literary persuasion with a romantic, if fairly well informed, view of the whole business." While perhaps not the norm, there does not seem to have been a real shortage of literate sailors of romantic persuasion. Don't forget, Herman Melville was a whaler before he got into the writing business!