Harlow's version, complete with tune, is on p. 87, suggesting that he heard it in 1876, though he doesn't say so specifically. At least he seems to have collected it from a person, not from print. He says it's from Barbados. Importantly, Harlow's second chorus is not "Hilo John Brown, stand to your ground!" but simply "Sally am de gal fo' me."

Though all the known versions have certain similarities, I think they're different enough to be independent, though clearly based on certain "regulation" verses.

Unsurprisingly, MacColl-Lloyd differs the most. The double-entendre verses "sound" so authentic that I'm tempted to suggest they got them at first hand from Hugill himself. But they could have just made 'em up. He once told me that Lloyd's semi-bawdifications were too coy for the sailors he'd known. He instanced, as particularly ridiculous, "Your little behind, love, /Would freeze in the wind, love."

But FWIW, Hugill recommended "A Sailor's Garland," on which those lines appear, as one of the best sea-song albums.