Tono: A
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With our nets and gear we're faring
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On the wild and wasteful ocean.
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F#m
It's there on the deep that we harvest and reap our bread
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As we hunt the bonny shoals of herring.
Verse
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Oh it was a fine and a pleasant day
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Out of Yarmouth harbour I was faring
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F#m
As a cabin boy on a sailing lugger
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For to hunt the bonny shoals of herring
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O, the work was hard and the hours were long
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And the treatment sure it took some bearing
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F#m
There was little kindness and the kicks were many
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As we hunted for the shoals of herring
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O, we left the home grounds in the month of June
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And to canny Shields we soon were bearing
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With a hundred cran of the silver darlings
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That we'd taken from the shoals of herring
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Now you're up on deck, you're a fisherman
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You can swear and show a manly bearing
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F#m
Take your turn on watch with the other fellows
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While you're searching for the shoals of herring
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O, we fished the Sward and the Broken Bank
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I was a cook and I'd a quarter-sharing
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F#m
And I used to sleep, standing on me feet
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And I'd dream about the shoals of herring
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You're net rope man now, boy you're on the move
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And you're learning all about seafaring
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That's your education, scraps of navigation
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As you hunt the bonny shoals of herring
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In the stormy seas and the living gales
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Just to earn your daily bread you're daring
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F#m
From the Dover Straits to the Faroe Islands
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As you're following the shoals of herring
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O, I earned my keep and I paid my way
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And I earned the gear that I was wearing
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F#m
Sailed a million miles, caught ten million fishes
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We were sailing after shoals of herring
Outro
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Night and day the sea we're daring,
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Come wind or come winter gale,
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F#m
Sweating or cold, growing up or growing old or dying,
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While we're hunting for the shoals of herring