Thanks for the clarification!

I've been subjected to a zillion 21st century renditions of the song at this point, but I don't remember ever hearing a VI / F chord there. That's wild. And it would seem to prematurely ruin the whole surprise of the chorus...which is where the F comes in and takes us into pop territory.

I just assumed the chord on "name" was iv / Dm. It's the expected chord in the song which has an F note in the melody AKA a natural minor scale AKA call it "Aeolian" if you like!

The Songs of a Young Country version of the score of Wellerman I have (from John Roberts!) lists "D add G" as the chord for the "name" bar. Dadgum me if I know what that's supposed to mean in exact notes (and I have a bachelor's degree in Music Composition and was a jazz bassist in an earlier life). As a musician today I just read it as "We're moving to D so we just need a solid D and A note foundation but on paper we need to make up a weird chord name on account of the fact that the melody has a non-chord tone and/or the guitarist felt like siding one finger up or down a fret."

No matter though. I actually think the modern version of the melody is an improvement. The original Colquhoun melody on "name of the ship was the B o T" is odd, IMHO. Why jump up to the octave? It's like you're shouting all of a sudden. Save the shouting and the upper register for the chorus. Before that you'd just been snaking, stepwise motion... now suddenly you're leaping. The modern version may have come about inadvertently through someone's unconscious sense to continue the stepwise motion.

I mean, this could be a klezmer or Russian melody or something. I need Theodore Bikel to sing it, with some obbligato clarinet. Cimbaloms!

Which is why I can never imagine it as a whalermen's traditional song.