SHOALS OF HERRING        Ewan MacColl

Intro:
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Oh, 'tis day and night we're faring
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Out on the Wild and the wasteful o-cean.
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It's there on the Deep that we harvest and we reap our living
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As we hunt the bonny shoals of herring.



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Oh it was a fine and a pleasant day:
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Out of Yarmouth harbour I was faring,
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As a cabin boy on a sailing lugger,
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For to go and hunt the shoals of herring.


Oh the work was hard and the hours were 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

Oh we fished the Swarf and the Broken Bank.
I was cook and I'd a quarters sharing,
And I used to sleep standing on me feet,
And I'd dream about the shoals of herring.


Oh we left the home grounds in the month of June,
And to Canny Sheils 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 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.


Oh 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.