My interest in Three Score & Ten stems from my recent family research. It appears that my great grandfather, Charles, and his brother, George (only 14 years old),left the Eastend of London in the autumn of 1867 to sign on as fishing apprentices in Grimsby. My Great Grandfather survived his first trip to the North Sea in November, however, George sailed at the end of November on the fishing trawler Increase. On the 1st December, it along with eleven other vessels from Grimsby and several from Hull, were lost in an horrendous storm. The only reference to this massive loss appears to be in the Ships Lost records for Grimsby to be found at -

http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/resident/libraries-and-archives/archives--local-and-family-history/free-indexes-topic-guides/

I feel this event must have survived in the "Folk Memory" at the time and probably sowed the seed for the later poem and Broadside.