The Shoals Of Herring lyrics

With our nets and gear we're farin'
On the wild and wasteful ocean.
It's there on the deep that we harvest and reap our bread
As we hunt the bonnie shoals of herrin'

O it was a fine and a pleasant day
Out of Yarmouth Harbour I was farin'
As a cabin-boy on a sailing lugger
For to go and hunt the shoals of herrin'

O the work was hard and the hours were long
And the treatment, sure it took some bearin'
There was little kindness and the kicks were many
As we hunted for the shoals of herrin'

O we fished the Swarth and the Broken Bank
I was cook and I'd a quarter sharin'
And I used to sleep standing on my feet
And the dream about the shoals of herrin'

Well we left the home-grounds in the month of June
And to Canny Shields we soon was bearin'
With a hundred cran of the silver darlings
That we'd taken from the shoals of herrin'

Now you're up on deck, you're a fisherman
You can swear and show a manly bearin'
Take your turn on watch with the other fellas
While you're following the shoals of herrin'

In the stormy seas and the living gales
Just to earn your daily bread you're darin'
From the Dover Straits to the Faroe Islands
While you're following the shoals of herrin'

Well I earned me keep and I paid me way
And I earned the gear that I was wearin'
Sailed a million miles, caught ten million fishes
We was following the shoals of herrin'