Thanks for pointing me to A Sailor's Life more insistently. The variation in Butcher Boy being so wide, I didn't realize the former would be so close, all the more so because the name suggests something like a donkey-ride shanty.

I know "dig my grave ..." appears in many songs, but I have the impression it's more of a marker; they all seem to be related, even if not everybody realizes they are. Eg "I died for love" doesn't have that verse floated in, I believe, but is a version of Butcher Boy that centers on the note written before she died; hence the "wish". Anyway, that's why I asked.

I'm not sure what to do with the text for My Boy Willie, though. It's Willie having been lost to the sea that gives it its mood. But it appears this is actually a later addition that doesn't make sense as it is here. I do not think dropping the drowning in favour of the battle at see and/or the burial would be as strong, though. Much as I like original texts, I'm tempted to create my own verse/ion here.
                                       Mysha