Ewan MacColl

With our nets and gear we're faring
On the wild and wasteful ocean.
Its there on the deep that we harvest and reap our bread
As we hunt the bonny shoals of herring

It was on 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 long
And the treatment, surely 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 cook and I'd a quarter sharing
And I used to sleep standing on my feet
And I'd dream about the shoals of herring

O we left the homegrounds in the month of June
And to Canny Shiels we soon were bearing
With a hundred cran of silver darlings
That we'd taken from the shoals of herring

Now you're up on deck, you're a fisherman
And you’re learning all about seafaring
That’s your education, scraps of navigation
While 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
As we hunted for the shoals of herring