I confess that I feel somewhat skeptical too. Surely one of the most lyrical and melancholy trad songs can't have been created step by step by careless and romantic 20th century editors!

But Gibb's evidence that it was isn't easily disputed. I'm going to think about it some more, however.

As to Hugill, he certainly had no reason to expect that the shanty collections were fooling him. Maybe he learned the song from print even before he went to sea, then taught it to his shipmates.

At least that would make the "dead lover" "Lowlands" a real shanty, even if sung by only one real shantyman! (Two if Masefield had ever sung it.)