Hi,

To consider which to include, let's look at both. Roud lumps them - he gives both versions, Mary Ann Haynes UK version and the Newfoundland versions as Roud 1716 when they are different songs that share a similar first stanza.

"The Colour of Amber" sung by Mary Ann Haynes in 1974 (on Voice 11):
   
Oh, the colour of amber was my love's hair,
And his two blue eyes they enticed me,
And his ruby lips, they being soft and fine,
Oh, many a time they've been pressed to mine.
   
Oh, I'll go a-fishing in yonder's brook
There I'll catch my love with a line and a hook,
And if he loves me, oh, like I love him,
No man on earth shall part us two.

Now, I wish, I wish, now this is all in vain.
Oh, I wish to God I was a maiden again.
Oh, a maid again I shall never more be,
Whilst apples growed on a orange tree.

This has one stanza of Died for Love and the first stanza is found similarly in a relative- Sailor Boy. here's one of several Newfoundland versions.

The Colour Of Amber- Collected in 1951 from Nicholas (Nick) Davis of St Shott's, NL, by MacEdward Leach. This is a variant of "Early, Early in the Spring" which is Laws M1, Roud #152:

Oh, the colour of amber is my love's hair,
And her rosy cheeks do my heart ensnare;
Her ruby lips so meek and mild,
Ofttimes have pressed them to those of mine.

As I sailed down the London Shore,
Where the loud cannon balls they roar,
In the midst of danger ofttimes I've been,
Ofttimes I have thought on you, Mary Green.

As I sailed down the London Shore,
I kept writing letters o'er and o'er;
I kept writing letters to you, my dear,
Out of all of them I received but one.

If you wrote letters back to this town,
Out of all of them I received but one;
You're false, oh, false love is none of mine,
Don't speak so hard of a sailmaker.

Straightway I went to her father's house,
And it's on this fair maid I did call;
Her father spoke me this reply,
Sayin', daughter dear, don't you love the boy.

I asked this father what he did mean,
Or would his daughter married be,
To some other young man to be a wife,
For I will go farther and take a life.

Now since my love has a man received,
A single life I will still remain;
I will plough the seas till the day I die,
I will split the waves till 'neath them I lie.

Very different songs with a similar first stanza. The Newfoundland version, a variant of "Early, Early in the Spring" which is Laws M1, Roud #152, is curiously similar to the Georgia version "Betsy, My Darling Girl"-- which is one thing that attracted me to the song. Although "The Colour of Amber" (Black is the Colour) stanza with variation appears in some versions of Sailor Boy, the Newfoundland ballad, "The Colour of Amber" has a different plot. See: "Early, Early in the Spring" Laws M1, Roud #152 for details.

Richie