I think cheap anglos would have been boxes at sea during the 19th century. Stan was definitely right about the moisture factor. Nigel Chippindale knackered various squeeze boxes playing on the Brid pleasure boats before Jim Eldon took over with his fiddle.

I'm very interested in the assertion that Alf Edwards was somehow responsible for associating the sound of the English concertina with the sea. In my own subconscious the most evocative musical sound that is played as background music in films of the sea is the English or duet concertina sound. I think this has influenced my anglo accompaniments on sea songs. MacColl used it to great effect on Singing the Fishing which again one presumes was Alf Edwards playing. I quite like what he does. It certainly conjures up the lonely endless seascape to me.