When the Radio ballads were ditched MacColl had intended to try to get one accepted on "a scabber", (basically a merchant seaman who had got himself a reputation as a troublemaker for standing up for seaman's rights' until he could only get work on the worst ships)
He eventually turned the research he had done into has last play - 'The Shipmaster'
It was produced in Glasgow and Manchester; I never saw it but have always hoped that it was filmed.
Jim Carroll