"The Old Red Duster" is by John Archbold, of Toronto. I know Alistair Brown has it on his latest CD- I seem to remember Tom Lewis recording it as well. John's original words include "pusser Navy" (instead of "brass-hat Navy") in the chorus. "Pusser", as in "purser" (see the famous rum), was apparently an expression of disdain for the rank- and rule-bound Royal Navy by the merchant seamen. The verse about the trip to Murmansk, John has explained to me, concerns the fact that a company wanted to send his uncle on the dangerous trip, only paying him as a "fourth" (class seaman ?), but the union intervened and said they couldn't do that. "The union said 'No, as a fourth he can't go.'"

In the original, "Her plates (not splights) are half sprung and they leak."

John Archbold (who has written a number of other excellent songs) is a founding member of The Toronto Morris Men (aka The Wall of Sound), who can be blamed for the odd shanty session (sometimes featured and advertised, more often in a pub or a kitchen) up here in Toronto.