With our nets and gear we're ferrying On the wild and wasteful ocean
It's out there on the deep That we harvest and reap our bread
As we hunt the bunny shoals of herring
It was on a fair and a pleasant day Out of Yarmouth Harbour I was ferrying
As a cabin boy on a sailing lover Part to hunt the bunny shoals of herring
We left the home grounds in the month of June And for canny shields we soon were bearing
With the hundred crown of the silver darlings That we'd taken from the shoals of herring
Now 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 seafaring
That's your education, scraps of navigation As you hunt the bunny 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
And it's night and day we're ferrying Come winter wave or winter gale
Sweating our coat, growing up, growing old or dying
As we hunt the bunny shoals of herring
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