With our nets and gear we're ferrying On the wild and wasteful oceanIt's out there on the deep That we harvest and reap our breadAs we hunt the bunny shoals of herringIt was on a fair and a pleasant day Out of Yarmouth Harbour I was ferryingAs a cabin boy on a sailing lover Part to hunt the bunny shoals of herringWe left the home grounds in the month of June And for canny shields we soon were bearingWith the hundred crown of the silver darlings That we'd taken from the shoals of herringNow the work was hard and the hours were long And the treatment sure it took some bearingAnd I used to sleep standing on my feet And I'd dream about the shoals of herringNow you're up on deck, you're a fisherman And you're learning all about seafaringThat's your education, scraps of navigation As you hunt the bunny shoals of herringIn the stormy seas and the living gales I earned the gear that I was wearingSailed ten thousand miles, caught ten million fishes As we hunted for the shoals of herringAnd it's night and day we're ferrying Come winter wave or winter galeSweating our coat, growing up, growing old or dyingAs we hunt the bunny shoals of herring*