Thank you, Charley. "TRUE" instead of "Through" is surely OK. "Freeley" was a typing error. "I've just returned from the sea" makes more sense, but I'm sure McColl sings "Let me return from the sea", and I've found this same verse in the version published in Still Growing, sung by William Nott in 1904. Of "Thieving tar" I'm not sure at all, but "dirty" is not the word. Thank you again. Roberto