The Ballad of the Rover was in MacMechan's Three Sea Songs. The [p] makes sense. So does "briny" - it fits much better with the rhyme scheme, although there are some inconsistencies in other stanzas. I have looked at several digital versions of the ballad, and they all use "bring." I will see if I can get a copy of Three Sea Songs through the library and see what his original looked like.