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Come all you hardy fishermen and listen unto me,
While I relate the hardships that are suffered on the sea,
By those who toil to earn their bread upon the stormy deep,
And risk their lives in dories, a family for to keep.
It was on the eleventh of April, from Gloucester we set sail,
Boreas from her lofty heights it blew a pleasant gale;
Before the wind we run along with every stitch all new,
She carried six Yankee dories and a bonny Gloucester crew.
We made the Bay of Islands on the west of Newfoundland,
Her name it was the Peerless with a Dutchman in command;
We took on board a trip of bait and shook out every form,
And for the Banks we run along before a Southwest storm.
We arrived on the Banks in the afternoon, shook out our starboard fall,
And quickly our dories lowered, for to set out all our trawl;
When suddenly a storm did rise, the foaming seas did churn,
And twelve fine hardy fishermen no more will they return.
Our captain cruised about all day in hopes to take them up,
But, no sign of the missing men, for home we then bore on;
Their dories in the gale capsized, they sank to rise no more,
Those twelve fine hardy fishermen belong to Gloucester's shore.
Sung by Pattie Maher of Flatrock, NL, and published in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
A variant was also sung by Peter Molloy of St. Shott's, NL, and published without a title as The _____ Song in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
From the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:
Trip - the total catch taken during a single voyage; cargo; the proceeds of the catch.
Note: Boreas - the north wind.
