Shoals Of Herring Songtext

With our nets and gear we're faring On the wild and wasteful ocean It's there on the deep That we harvest and reap our bread As we hunt the bonny shoals of herring Oh, it was a fine and a pleasant day Out of Yarmouth harbour I was faring As a cabin boy on a sailing lugger For to go and hunt the shoals of herring Now the work was hard and the hours were long And the treatment surely took some bearing There was little kindness and the kicks were many As we hunted for the shoals of herring Oh, we fished the Sward and the Broken Bank I was cook and I'd a quarter sharing And I used to sleep standing on my feet And I'd dream about the shoals of herring We left the home grounds in the month of June And to canny Shields we soon was bearing With a hundred cran of the silver darlings That we'd taken from the shoals of herring Now you're up on deck, you're a fisherman You can swear and show a manly bearing Take your turn on watch with the other fellows While you're following the shoals of herring In the stormy seas and the living gale Just to earn your daily bread you're daring From the Dover Straits to the Faroe Islands While you're following the shoals of herring I earned my keep and I paid my way And I earned the gear that I was wearing Sailed a million miles, caught ten million fishes We were following the shoals of herring Night and day we're faring Come winter wind or winter gale Sweating or cold, Growing up, growing old and dying As you hunt the bonnie shoals of herring