Thanks, Art; I'll settle for selling enough to cover my recording expenses and maybe buy a used Rolls-Royce!

I have no idea where Tom got the chorus, but as you say, I've a feeling that it's the folk-process/oral tradition in action.

And he has come up with a damn fine song as a result.

Why can't the concept of a 19th century labor song be adapted for use in a song of the sea?

Or the Bard of Armagh for the Streets of Laredo?

Seamus