The Bonny Shoals Of Herring

Intro: With our nets and gear we're faring On the wild and wasteful ocean. It's there on the deep that we harvest and reap our bread As we hunt the bonny shoals of herring. Verse Oh it was a fine and a pleasant day Out of Yarmouth harbour I was faring As a cabin boy on a sailing lugger For to hunt the bonny 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 left the home grounds in the month of June And to canny Shields we soon were 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 O, we fished the Sward 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 You're net rope man now, boy 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 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 Outro (semi a capella) Night and day the sea we're daring, Come wind or come winter gale, Sweating or cold, growing up or growing old or dying, While we're hunting for the shoals of herring