I first learnt the song at school - I think it was in "The National Song Book". The first verse that I remember was similiar to the previously mentioned ones:

Sons of the sea - bobbing up and down like this.
Sailing the ocean - bobbing.....
We will build your ships my lads - bobbing.....
Oh you can't beat the boys of the bulldog breed, When you're bobbing up and down like this.


Obviously the "Bulldog Breed" referred to the British. I'll see if I can find the rest of the original words, but the attribution to Harry Dacre is correct. Dacre was English, but later moved to America to find more money in song writing.