O, it was a fine and a pleasant day
Out of Yarmouth harbor I was faring
As a cabin boy on a sailing lugger
For to hunt the bonny shoals of herring

Well, I earned my keep and I paid my way
And I earned the gear that I was wearing
Sailed a million miles, caught ten million fishes
That we’d hunted in the shoals of herring

Night and day, the seas were daring
Come, wind, O call our winter gale
Sweating or cold, growing up
growing old or dying
As we hunt the bonny shoals of herring