The Shoals of Herring

[D]With our nets and [Bm]gear we're [A]fa[D]ring
[D]On the wild and [G]wasteful [D]ocea[A]n.
Its out [D]there on the [G]deep we [D]harvest and reap [A]our [Bm]bread
As we [D]hunt the bonny [G]shoals of [A]herr[D]ing

[D]O it was a fine and a pleasant day
Out of Yarmouth harbour I was [A]faring
[D]As a cabinboy on a sailing [Bm]lugger
[D]We were following  the [G]shoals of [A]her[D]ring

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
As your hunting for the shoals of herring

Now 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
As we hunted for the shoals of herring

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

In the stormy seas and the living gales
Just to earn your daily bread you're faring
From the Dover Straits to the Faroe Islands
As you're hunting for the shoals of herring

Well 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 hunting after shoals of herring

You're net rope man now, or you're on the move
And your learing all about sea faring
That's your education scraps of navigation
As you hunt the bonnie shoals of herring

Night and day the sea's we are daring
Come wind or calm or winter gales
Sweating our cold growing up growing old or dying
as you hunt the bonny schoal of herring