Here's how Maitland sang the song for Alan Lomax in 1939.

When comparing it to the text for Doerflinger (above), it appears less improvised. I mean, each text by itself looks like Maitland is just roughly narrating, not making rhyme and not remembering "the lyrics," but the fact that he sang it more or less the same both times makes it seem as though he'd settled on a stable text during those years.

In the following, I omit the interjections explaining the song, that it was sung at the capstan, and the scolding of Lomax for asking where the "pulls" are.

PADDY, GET BACK

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London,
I went down the Shadwell docks to get a ship.

    Paddy, get back, take in the slack,
    Heave away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl!
    ‘Bout ship and stations there be handy,
    Rise, tacks and sheets and mainsail, haul!

There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the basin,
Oh, they told me she was going to New York.

If I ever lay my hands on that shipping master,
Oh, I’ll murder him if it’s the last thing that I do.

When the pilot left the ship way down the channel,
Oh, the captain told us we were going around Cape Horn.

The mate and second mate belonged to Boston,
And the captain hailed from Bangor down in Maine.

The three of them were rough and tumble fighters,
When not fighting amongst themselves, they turned on us.

Oh, they called us out one night to reef the topsails,
Now with belaying pins a-flying around the deck.

Oh, and we came on deck and went to set the topsails,
Not a man among the bunch could sing a song.

We had tinkers, we had tailors and firemen, also cooks,
And they couldn’t sing a shanty unless they had the book.

Oh, wasn’t that a bunch of hoodlums
For to take a ship around Cape Horn!