In my opinion the best reference book for this song and other pirate songs has to be THE BOOK OF PIRATE SONGS by Stuart M. Frank, © 1998, available from The Kendall Whaling Museum (www.kwm.org). You'll find excellent discussion, different variants, traditional songs and some later Victorian period romantic songs.

I believe that Stuart and his wife have also recorded some of these songs on CD.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble