Which chorus you sing isn't a sailor/folkie distinction. It could be regional, of course, but every sailor I know in Southern California sings the Valpariso 'round the Horn version. It has to do with the ultimate source, but the modification was done in-period. Let's go with Stan's explanation:

"This capstan song, considered a forebitter only by some authorities, started life in packet-ship days and, in our present form (with the old refrain "Raise tacks sheets and mains'l haul!" changed to "We're bound for Vallaparaiser round the Horn!"), was well known aboard the saltpetre ships out of Liverpool to Chile's Flaming Coast."

This also makes a deal of sense--it seems to me that the later Liverpool sailors (such as Stan, eh?) were the biggest contributor to the surviving shanties, so we might guess that a priori a Liverpool variant sung in the West Coast trade (one of the last to convert from sail to power) would be the most common one collected.

That quote, BTW, is not in Shanties From The Seven Seas but the later Shanties and Sailor Songs. It was not reprinted as Seven Seas was, but a quick search on Bookfinder ought to find you a copy. At least, that's how I got mine. I highly recommend it for the improved discussion of how shanties were actually used and for the bibliography and discography, as well as Songs of the Sea. It's a pity few people seem to even know of their existence, and I wish Mystic would reprint them as well.

Dustin