Shoals of Herring

Shoals of Herring - The Clancy Brothers/Tommy Makem

With our nets and gear we're faring

On the wild and wasteful ocean

It's out there on the deep

That we harvest our bread

As we hunt the bonny shoals of herring

It was on a fine and a pleasant day

Out of Yarmouth harbor I was faring

As a cabin boy on a sailing lugger

For to hunt the bonny shoals of herring

Oh we left the home grounds

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

Oh the work was hard

And the hours were long

And the treatment sure it took some bearing

And I used to sleep standing on my feet

And I'd dream about the shoals of herring

Now you're up on deck you're a fisherman

And you're learning all about sea faring

That's your education scraps of navigation

As you hunt the bonny shoals of herring

In the stormy seas and the living gales

I earned the gear that I was wearing

Sailed ten thousand miles caught ten million fishes

As we hunted for the shoals of herring

Night and day we are fearing

Come wind or wave or winter gales

Sweating or cold growing up growing old

As we hunt the bonny shoals of herring