Thanks! -- 'Stormalong" was the song I couldn't remember but had in mind when I said I believed MacColl learned at least one song from Hugill directly.

Yet as I said, that does not lead me to assume the case of VDL was the same.

I think it more likely that MacColl developed his VDL from Colcord. Whether "established" is the right word or not, VDL was in both Colcord and MacKenzie's books of sea songs and that alone, IMO, is enough to explain why MacColl would include it on an album of sea songs.

MacColl is singing Colcord's tune of BON (a song he also likely used Colcord as a source for). His text on VDL is plausibly developed from the texts of VDL and BON in Colcord. In my prior attempt to derive the sources of "The Singing Sailor", I found that most of the songs were developed from Colcord and Doerflinger. "Stormalong" came later.

I think Hugill *did* credit MacColl, obliquely, by mentioning "The Singing Sailor." That was as much credit as a lay "Revival" singer was going to get. IIRC (?), Hugill doesn't even bother to credit MacColl when he praises "Singing Sailor" earlier in SfSS.

I don't think that Hugill did not hear Jones hear the song, but I am forced to conclude, on the weight of the other factors, that this was a case where Hugill drew upon another rendition to refresh his memory. It may be that the tune Hugill gives for VDL, which strictly speaking is different from MacColl's tune, was what he had from Jones. Sharp and Terry, for example, also followed a practice of crediting the individual who contributed the tune they present all while combining lyrics from other sources.

In my analysis of "Lowlands," for example, I concluded that Hugill's melody for that chanty was quite possibly influenced by revival singer Stan Kelly's 1958 recording (both of those melodies being suspiciously the same, yet matching none of the other versions documented earlier). I think Hugill was influenced by recorded versions of songs, which, due to the nature of the concept of Folk music, did not necessarily pose any issue of authenticity.