Anna Shannon

On the sea or land for the fishing man
There’s no greater pleasure you can get
Than when you drift at night till the break of early light
For the Darlings in the heavy herring net

   Whey-hey Oh!
   And there’s one thing for certain you can bet
   If I had one wish it would be for silver fish
   They’re the Darlings of the heavy herring nets

When the daylight comes and our hauling is begun
It tak’s every bit of strength from every man
We have a man up higher and he pulls in all the lines
But we still have to lift them in by hand

Then we sluice the darlings down and we store them in a mound
And we head for port as quickly as we can
And we hope and pray we have earned a decent pay
As we unload them from the drifters by the cran