The original Heiland Laddie had no 'Was you ever in...' verses.
The much later shanty used verses made up from many other shanties presumably because the first shantyman to use them didnt care for the Heiland Laddie story but liked the tune - either that or because the original was a shanty used in the whaling trade and being an ex-whaler he used the tune with different words that would fit the trade he was now in. It has even been speculated upon that the song was turned into some kind of game where each singer in turn would name a port and then add a couple of lines to rhyme with it. (In the fo'cs'le perhaps, but not as a shanty imho)
Also
Donkeys breakfast = straw filled mattress
Donkey engine = small utility engine
No connection between the two.
And
Scottish engineering skills would not be required to work a donkey engine, any more than a Michelin-starred chef would be needed to boil a kettle of water for the British captains tea.
I should also like to take this opportunity to complain about the thread title. I am not a nerd, nor do I wear an anorak.
A Sou-wester maybe, but NEVER an anorak - right!