Gee, Jim, you did that by ear? You got it almost perfect. I checked the Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook and made just a couple other corrections, also marked bold.

THE SHOALS OF HERRING
(Ewan MacColl)

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.

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 go and hunt the shoals of herring.

Oh, 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.

Oh, we fished the Sward and the Broken Bank.
I was cook and I'd a quarter sharing,
And I used to sleep standing on my feet,
And I'd dream about the shoals of herring.

Well, 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 following the 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,
While you're following the shoals of herring.

O, I earned me keep and I paid me way,
And I earned the gear that I was wearing,
Sailed a million miles, caught ten million fishes.
We was following the shoals of herring.


from the radio ballad, Singing the Fishing, 1959.
Note: MacColl based the tune on that of a Scots traditional ballad, "The Famous Flower of Serving Men."

Source: The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook, by Peggy Seeger (Oak Publications, 2001)



@work @sailor @animal @fish
Copyright Stormking Music, Inc.
recorded by Ewan Maccoll on Freeborn Man
filename[ SHOALHER
TUNE FILE: SHOALHER
CLICK TO PLAY
SOF