It is interesting to see an attempt to deconstruct the camouflage and get back to what might have been the original, and it would also be worth re-recording that recording, Gibb, when the song has "settled" in your mind and flows more readily.

You have explained above why your timing differs from the commonplace, but you have also varied the tune considerably - the tune I use is the same as that from the recently deceased Pete Hicks who was there and fairly central during the revival (his seat on tenor banjo with the Barber band came immediately after a certain Mr Donegan) and the happily not deceased Jim Radford who was in the wavy navy during WWII and still gets booked for some shanty festivals.

Where do your tune variants come from?