'Does anyone know whether L & H were in contact (via EFSDS, say) in the late '50s? The same question arose here some years back concerning "Blood-Red Roses."'

I did try to look into this when I was studying Lloyd's sea songs (many of which, of course, he modified substantially) a couple of years ago. I didn't find a smoking gun, and Dave Arthur (Lloyds biographer) didn't know of any early meetings between them, but my strong suspicion is that, in the case of 'Off to Sea Once More', the 'Liverpool' version that Hugill published in 1961 was put together by Lloyd around 1957 for 'Thar She Blows'. It may be the same story for 'Reuben Ranzo'.