Another thing - Nancy, you quoted (7 years ago, egad!) Jim Johnson's liner notes about the tune - that The Irish Exile did not fit, so they had to add some notes.

Some google research turned up at least two songs by that name, maybe three, and one midi file of a tune that doesn't fit at all.

One of the set of lyrics has the same meter, however, It is in a "golden treasury" of Irish tunes here:
http://www.archive.org/stream/goldentreasuryof02welsuoft/goldentreasuryof02welsuoft_djvu.txt

It seems to be written by "MacDermott" (go to #57)

Does anyone know if that is the one The Shanghaied Dredger is based on, and where one could find the tune?