Shoals of Herring

Lyrics
With our nets and gear we're faring On the wild and wasteful ocean. Its there on the deep that we harvest and reap our bread As we hunted for the shoals of herring O it was a fine and a pleasant day Out of Yarmouth harbor I was faring As a cabinboy on a sailing lugger For to go and hunt the shoals of herring O the work was hard and the hours long And the treatment, sure it took some bearing There was little kindness and the kicks were many As we hunted for the shoals of herring O we fished the Swarth 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 O we left the homegrounds in the month of June And to Canny Shiels we soon were bearing With a hundred cran of 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 searching for the shoals of herring In the stormy seas and the living gales Just to earn your daily bread you're daring From the Dover Straits to the Faroe Islands As you're following the shoals of herring O 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 sailing after shoals of herring You're net ropeman now, or you're on the move And you're learning all about seafaring That's your education, scraps of navigation As you hunt the bonny shoals of herring Night and day the seas were daring come wind or calm or winter gales sweating or cold; growing up, growing old, or dying as we dreamed about the shoals of herring

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