In fact, the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Jan. 12, 1927), p. 2, advertises "Tell It to the Marines" (starring Lon Chaney) by headlining the rhyming line in question.

From the Seattle Daily Times (Dec. 31, 1928), p. 2:

Enlisted with the consent of their mother in Spokane Friday, the youngsters had learned up to the forty-ninth verse of the "Marine Hymn" and were expert in warbling "Ten thousand gobs laid down their swabs to lick a sick Marine," a tender ditty calculated to improve their future relations with the Navy.



And consider:

New York Journal and Advertiser (Nov. 20, 1898), p.44:

As the great crowd poured out through the gates [after Harvard beat Yale in their annual football game], there was one continued song of Harvard jubilation. he crimson men owned the town. Most of them went back on the evening trains in order to burn up Boston. But up to a late hour the voice of John the Orangeman [a devoted but alcoholic Harvard fan] was heard in the land. Down one of the dark, rain-swept streets he could be heard in the following jocund lay:

    Get ready, Mrs. Farrell,
      Get ye ready very soon,
    Tin thousand pikes are flashing
      Be the risin' of the moon.
    Be the risin' of the moon,
      Be the risin' of the moon,
    Tin thousand micks laid down their picks
      Be the risin' of the moon.


Dallas Morning News (June 20, 1905), p. 3:

"Three thousand Micks threw down their picks at the battle of Boyne- Water." Thirteen soldiers of the First Cavalry, more or less Irish, were singing this song at the top of their voices last night near the Leon Springs target range.

The historical "Boyne Water" turns into "B'ilin' Water" in a non-historical variant.