Bellamy was certainly borrowing from tradition, and unabashedly. But how many such songs specifically about the transported have you ever heard? This is not a mere shanty of recycled phrases, but a distinct narrative, clearly recognizable as a unique work, in which borrowed bits only provide an underpinning. Why should he (or his heirs) "copyleft" such a work, abandoning well-deserved royalties, just because it's a great joy to sing and artfully incorporates commonly used elements of the genre?

Composers never create entirely new works; their art is in how they select and arrange existing elements into new works. It is this that copyright was intended to protect. You and I may find copyrights restrictive in reusing and evolving such material for our own profit, but we have little grounds to shout "unfair", except perhaps to our governments.

As for the corrections I submitted, this is a copyrighted work, and definitive sources both exist and are readily accessible, so there was really no justification for harvesting such a bastardization into the DT (particularly under the wrong name!) If one purports it is a "folk-processed" version, it should be clearly labelled as such, with suitable disclaimers regarding accuracy and transmission. I restrained from saying the differences were out-and-out wrong because I'm not familiar with what alterations Bellamy himself may have made or authorized since the original recording. Nor did I compare the printed lyrics with the recording. But most of the differences water down Bellamy's careful word choices - the downside of the "folk process".

As for the abridged version, well, let's agree to disagree. The language is not really an improvement, the brevity fails to reflect the length and travails of such a voyage, and that chorus is such a glory to dig into, one shouldn't be deprived so soon of the opportunity. There are gaps in continuity that, though common in folk material, here aren't justified. I believe Bellamy had a fine sensitivity for such matters; few really do improve on his discretion.