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> Martin Carthy > Songs > The Shoals of Herring
> Louis Killen > Songs > Shoals of Herring

The Shoals of Herring

[ Roud 13642 ; Ewan MacColl]

The Shoals of Herring was written for the third of the eight BBC radio ballads by Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker and Peggy Seeger, Singing the Fishing (first broadcast on August 16, 1960, released on an Argo LP in 1966 and now available on a Topic CD). It was about the herring fishery and fishermen, and the song was designed specifically to highlight the life-story of Sam Larner, who had spent a long life as a herring fisherman, but was retired at the time of the recording. He first went to sea, he said, in 1892, when he was just a boy. In this moving documentary, the song is sung partly by Ewan MacColl and partly by Bert Lloyd, all skilfully interpolated among the spoken words of Mr Larner. An extract of this with A.L. Lloyd and Sam Larner is on the last track of the first side of Karl Dallas' brilliant 4 LP anthology, The Electric Muse: The Story of Folk into Rock.

(A 12" LP of Mr Larner was later produced: Now is the Time for Fishing: Songs and Speech by Sam Larner of Winterton, England, collected and edited by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger; Folkways 1961; Topic 2000.)

The Ian Campbell Folk Group sang The Shoals of Herring on the 1964 LP Edinburgh Folk Festival Vol. 2 and Nigel Denver recorded it in the same year for his eponymous LP Nigel Denver.

The Three City Four (Martin Carthy, Leon Rosselson, Ralph Trainer and Marian McKenzie) sang The Shoals of Herring on their 1965 LP The Three City Four.

Louis Killen recorded Shoals of Herring in 1968 for his 1973 LP Sea Chanteys.

Ewan MacColl sang The Shoals of Herring again in 1983 on his album Black and White; this track was also included on the 3 CD anthology The New Electric Muse: The Story of Folk into Rock.

Jon Boden sang Shoals of Herring as the February 20, 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. He noted in the blog that it's a “powerful song from the Radio Ballads. Sung on FSC, despite being a tad wordy for communal singing—the strength of the melody drives it on.”

Lyrics

Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd on Singing the Fishing

[EM, track 1] 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.

[ALL, track 4] 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.

[ALL, track 4] Oh, the work was hard and the hours were long
And the treatment surely took some bearing.
There was little kindness and the kicks were many
As we hunted for the shoals of herring.

[ALL, track 4] 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.

[ALL, track 4] Oh, we left the homegrounds in the month of June,
And to canny Shields we soon was bearing,
With a hundred cran of the silver darlings
That we'd taken from the shoals of herring.

[EM, track 4] 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 searching for the shoals of herring.

[ALL, track 5] Oh, 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,
We were sailing after shoals of herring.

[EM, track 15] Wi' 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.

[ALL, track 15] Night and day the sea we're daring,
Come wind or come winter gale, sweating or cold,
Growing up or growing old or dying,
While we're hunting for the shoals of herring.

(EM = verse sung by Ewan MacColl, ALL = sung by A.L. Lloyd; the track numbers refer to the Topic CD reissue of Singing the Fishing)

Ewan MacColl on Black and White

With the 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 homegrounds in the month of June,
And to canny Shields we soon was 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 Faeroe Islands
While you're following the 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,
We was following the shoals of herring.

Acknowledgements

Transcribed by Reinhard Zierke with a bit of help from Matt Rose. Thank you!