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
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