I want to thank everyone for contributing to this thread. Certainly this is starting point. I'm still putting my US/Canadian versions on my site and have over 100. After that I'll post some conclusions. I have new book deal with Mel Bay yesterday for "Country Music: The Early Years" and another book, "Popular child Ballads" so I'll be working on those two books in addition to posting here.
This is "Pretty Polly" from Mountain Ballads for Social Singing by James Watt Raine; Cecil J Sharp; Berea, Ky.: Berea College Press, 1923. The melody is from Sharp's EFFSA, version I. The text is from an unknown source collected by Raine in Kentucky and in stanza 11 it has Pretty Polly returning as a ghost with her baby- a very rare and unique stanza in Appalachia. Here's the ending from stanza 9:
9. The ship was lying ready, all on the sea side, He swore by his maker, he'd sail the other side.
10. And whilst he was sailing, in full heart's content, The ship sprung a leak and to the bottom she went.
11. And there was Petty Polly, all in a gore of blood, In her lily-white arms was an infant of God[1].
12. O William, O William, you've no time to stay, There's a debt to the devil you're bound to pay.
1. the expression in stanza eleven seems to mean, "I call God to witness, she had an infant in her arms. [Raine's footnote]