Interesting to re-visit this subject
MacColl wrote it as a whole song for 'Singing the Fishing' - it was broken up for the programme.
He based the lyrics directly on actuality recorded from mainly Sam Larner - the recordings are in The Charles Parker Archive in Birmingham and in the Ewan MacColl Archive at Ruskin college - lines like "stormy seas and the living gales" came directly from Sam.
He adapted the tune from the the version of the ballad "Famous Flower of Serving Men' 'Sweet William' included in Gavin Greig's 'Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads' which Ewan recorded on a Folkways album.
Peggy said he adapted the same tune for several of his songs, including 'Freeborn Man'.
I was said to learn the late Louis Killen was one of the Ewan knockers who claimed MacColl didn't write some of his best songs, but stole them from elsewhere - alongside the pratt writing in Musical Traditions who claimed MacColl stole 'Herring' from Sam Larner and claimed it as his own.
The song has been recovered several times from source singers since it was composed, but invariably in fragmented and distorted versions
Jim Carroll