Fifty-six I sailed on board A ship called Byron One She's carried trawler men on deck And a harpoon whaling gun
Chorus (after each verse): Oh you trawler men, come on Forget your snapper and your prawn For it's out of Ballina we'll sail Fishing for the humpback whale A tractor for a whale winch And the ship's an old Fairmile Twin diesels turn the screws around She'll whale in a fine old style
Keep a sharp look-out me lads The whale he's on the run And we'll drive him into Byron Bay And we'll shoot him with our guns
The harpoon and the line fly through Very deep into the whale She split the timbers of the ship With a flurry of her tail
The rigging struts are snapped in two We reel beneath the blow The gunner fires a killer shot And that humpback sank below
Make her tail fast to the bows We've got no time for bed For four and twenty hours each day We kept that factory fed
The flensing men upon the land Some had been jackeroos They skin the blubber from the whales Like they're skinning kangaroos
A hundred whales and then fifty more Through the factory we did send And then the orders came - knock off me lads Your season's at an end
Back into Ballina we steered Tied up and stowed the gear All hands headed for the pub And we filled ourselves with beer