Regarding identifying other attested renditions of "Tally I O", I don't think this has been discussed. (?)

It's an example that has been right under our noses: a chanty in Abrahams' _Deep the Water_ titled "Sintali."

The whalemen of Barouallie had it in the 1960s. The singers said that it was a song about a fisherman, Sintali, who wanted to catch fish to feed his family but had no bait. He cut off parts of his body for bait, including his penis. "We don't know it is true, but we hear so from our parents' time."

Abrahams gives a score and text transcription. (I will post a rendition, soon, to give an idea of how it fits together). First verse is:

Oh, Sintali, Sintali, a poor fisherman,
    Sintali, I-yah [I hear], you know
Oh, Sintali, Sintali, who went out to sea,
    Oh, Sintali, I-yah, you know

The lines continue in typical ad-libbed fashion, about the great fisherman, couldn't get bait, what he uses as bait ("free leg", "penis", "his body", "own head").

"Sintali" clearly maps onto "sing tally" of other versions.
Abrahams had glossed "I-yah" as "I hear," though I'm not so sure about that.

From one side, we might speculate that "tally hi ho" (etc) was heard by these people as a mondegreen of sorts, which they turned into a name phrase...and then wove a narrative. From another side, however, this could be the original theme, which didn't scan for listeners from other cultures. It would explain why the "Tally i o" part was (i.e. in James Wright's rendition) sometimes in the *solo* part — in other words, it wasn't nonsense syllables. It might explain how (in Wright's words) "Tally-i-o was a jolly old soul," i.e. because it is someone's name.

The other evidence on this song so far suggests it may be from the Caribbean region. So just as this isn't necessarily the original because it is sung by Caribbean-based singers, nor would one expect them to misinterpret something from "their" region.