THE SMACKSMAN (Roud 1788)
Sung by Sam Larner

Chorus (after each verse):
Coil away the trawl-warp, boys, let’s heave on the trawl,
When we get our fish onboard we’ll have another haul.
Straightway to the capstan and merrily heave around,
And that’s the cry in the middle of the night,
“Haul the trawl, boys, haul.”

Once I was a schoolboy, I stayed at home with ease;
Now I am a smacksman and I plough the raging seas.
I thought I’d like seafaring life but very soon I found,
It was not all plain sailing, boys, when out on the fishing ground.

Now when we get our fish onboard we have them all to gut;
We put them in baskets and down the ice-locker put.
We ice them all right safely and then wash them all quite well,
Keep them from all chafe, my boys, like an oyster in his shell.