THE TRAWLERMAN
Dave Pearce

A galleon sailed across his arm, a bluebird said "Love - Mam";
A gold ring twinkled in his ear; he was a trawlerman.
All his life he'd been a hunter in the jungle of the sea;
But they tied his boat up to the wall and left him on the quay.

He was just a boy of 10 years old when first he sailed away;
With his grand-dad in a prawning boat to fish in Morecambe Bay.
And when the catch was landed to the prawn-house loft it went;
Where Fleetwood prawns were picked and cleaned, then throughout all England sent.

Time went by and he grew up, to follow the trawling trade;
Galley boy on an Iceland ship was the very first trip he made.
In the Arctic night and the raging sea, deep in his heart he knew
That the brotherhood of fishermen was his a lifetime through.

Living hard in the Trawler Town, he followed the fishing way;
Three weeks at sea, three days ashore and drinking half his pay.
His wife and kids they stayed at home, and the years went rolling on;
Till he grew old, the dock gates closed and THE FINAL TRAWL had come.

Spoken by Charles Penfold.

I have put a tune to this. We used it as a song "Trawlertown" in a show we did about ten years ago, "It All Comes Out of the Cod End".