If you'd heard some of the old Eastern Shore fishermen stories I've heard, you wouldn't find the lyrics remarkable except for the narrator's philosophising. Those old boys were very tough, very rough, and often not half civilized, and their wives were pretty rugged as well.

I had a job correcting local genealogies a while back. Quite a few stories got included by the collectors. One fisherman, early 1900's, accused by a neighbour of stealing a crate of cod, arrested in Halifax. It's November, snowing and blowing, and it is over 50 km. to Halifax from the community. Wife receives news of husband in jail that evening. Puts on her coat and walks to Halifax to post his bail.