To the North sea we’re faring To that wild and wasteful ocean Casting our nets, reaping the harvest of the deep While we hunt the bonny shoales of herring
O, it was a bright and a summers morning Out of Yarmouth harbour I was faring As a cabin boy on a sailing lugger For to go and hunt the shoals of herring
O, 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
O, we fished the Swarth and the Broken Bank I was a cook and I'd a quarter-sharing And I used to sleep, standing on me feet And I'd dream about the shoals of herring
O, we left the home grounds in the month of June And to canny Shiels 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
O, I earned me keep and I paid me 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