Gaz, I have a bunch or MacColl/Seeger versions but not the Carthy Shearwater. Wolf's suggestion seems possible. If you'll type in the first 5 verses (ie, the different ones & the ref to DT) I will check Bronson.Now here's something... - Incidentally, every time I get another Folk-Legacy record, and I have about 1,200 of them, I say Now that's my favorite. Very annoying. But, on my favorite F-L record, Fair Winds and a Following Sea, is a shorter version of "C'est l'Aviron," a song I learned from an actual French Canadian & we sang in the streets of Paris in 1959. Pretty good memories there. But the note-writer for the record notes a connection between this classic paddling song & Child #4. The notes follow Laura Smith & Child but this is a case I find I'd like to see the missing links. (I know Sandy is not now staking his life on this claim - it's just interesting.)
The first line is normally "M'en revenant de la jolie Rochelle." While 'revenant' could be a ghost ('returned one') if a noun - and the traveller does meet several pretty women, he has other notions than to kill them. It's usually taken as "As I returned to..." from 'revenir' the verb. (I'm going by the dictionary here, not my profound knowledge of French.) Still, this shows how widely the ideas in the song can be strewn.
Still, Hickerson does a good job too. (As I said, ALL F-L records are my favorite.)
There's another motif of the song that intrigues me; Lady is often compared to a man. Instead of submitting & getting killed as a proper lady should, she behaves like a man & defends & violently kills. (See my quote above) Sometimes this is is extended to such male adjectives as Steadfast & Brave, etc.
Boycot South Carolina!