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The Shoals Of Herring

from Freeborn Man by Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger

/

about

Sam Larner, the Norfolk fisherman who featured in Singing the Fishing, was born in 1879 in the village of Winterton, where the men went to sea and the women regarded making and repairing of nets as part of their domestic duties. One of nine children, Larner first went to sea when he was eight years old. The rest of his life was spent hunting the shoals of herring from the Channel Grounds to the Faröe Islands, from the Norwegian Deeps to the Butt of Lewis. In 1899, the steam drifters came in (‘the loveliest ship for the job that ever was built,’ said Ronnie Balls, a Lowestoft fisherman). Larner’s heyday coincided with that of the herring fishing industry, the bonanza times of 1900-1914, when ‘you could walk across Yarmouth Harbour on the boats.’ After World War I, the market plummeted. By 1929, when ‘grass was growing in the shipbuilding yards,’ fishermen were dumping bumper catches back into the sea again for lack of a market. ’You could not get a living if your neighbour was getting one.’ Then, of course, came World War II and the bottom was back in the industry, bringing monumental changes to the whole technology of fishing. Larner, worn out with hard work by the age of 54, re-lived his life and times for us at the age of eighty, pouring himself enthusiastically into our little EMI recorder in 1959.

At that time, he was living with his blind wife Dorcas on the edge of the village in which he was born. His speech was rich with proverbs, sayings, traditional songs and jokes. He was full of life and he not only had a phenomenal memory but had developed an epic manner of recounting his experiences. When he heard “Shoals of Herring” for the first time he declared ‘I known that song all my life’. No wonder - it was made from his very words. It has recently been collected from traditional singers in Eire who also say they have known it all their lives. They call it “The Shores of Erin”.

alternative titles: “The Bonnie Shoals of Herring”, “The Shores of Erin”
words and music: Ewan MacColl

lyrics

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.

O, it was a fine and 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.

O, 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.

O, 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 home grounds 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 deck 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 Faröe Islands
While you’re following the shoals of herring.

O, I earned me keep and I paid me 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.

credits

from Freeborn Man, released September 20, 1983
Ewan MacColl - vocals
Peggy Seeger - guitar, concertina

Produced by Neill MacColl
Engineered by Nick Godwin
Recorded at Pathway Studios, London

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all rights reserved

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Ewan MacColl London, UK

This site is maintained by the MacColl family, aiming to make Ewan's catalogue available to download.
Ewan MacColl is known to most as a songwriter and singer, but he was also of significant influence in the worlds of theatre and radio broadcasting. His art reached huge numbers through the folk clubs, greater numbers through his recordings and untold millions through the radio. ... more

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