A. L. Lloyd sings the song as lead shantyman in the 1956 movie Moby Dick.
William Doerflinger's version comes from an 1893 manuscript collection by Nathaniel Silsbee of Cohasset, Massachusetts. The earliest printed record of the tune was entered by Captain Adams at the halyards of a U.S. ship (On Board the "Rocket", 1879). Doerflinger notes:
The "bunch of roses" symbolized Napoleon. I doubt that the [Moby Dick] movie version, with a "blood red roses" chorus, is authentic.
In fact, Lloyd likely adopted the specific line from a scrap couplet quoted by Stan Hugill:
Come down with your pretty posy
Come down with your cheeks so rosy
Sting performs the song on the 2006 album "Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys".