Brian --
Thanks for coming back! I recently stumbled on your published essay on this subject and it looks so good. Awaiting the opportunity to read it in full, but in the meantime, folks with some spare time (retired people??!?) should definitely check it out.

I feel inspired to look more closely and comparatively at all of the sailor songs that Lloyd said to have learned from Tom Howard of Barry, born circa 1888.

Howard, I recently discovered, played the role of the blacksmith in the 1950s film version of Moby Dick. He was the mate on the vessel used in the movie (captained by Alan Villiers) in the Irish Sea, in the summer of 1954 -- I think that's the same year Lloyd met Howard, and I wonder if the occasion for meeting was also the making of the film. I imagine Lloyd may have been employed to be the shantyman and, perhaps, Howard, also present, piped up to tell him a thing or two!

My curiosity was piqued when I noticed that the liner notes for "Bold Riley" on _A Sailor's Garland_ (1962) contain obvious bollocks and no mention of Howard. But in a 1970 magazine issue, Lloyd is pressed as to where he got the song from and he says it was from Howard. Suffice it to say, I hope to learn more about what "getting a song from Howard" really meant to Lloyd. On one hand, Howard's songs mediated by Lloyd could be really important sources to log. On the other hand, I fear it's possible that Lloyd might have invoked Howard tokenistically in some cases to give his arrangements/creations a pedigree.