Come all you bold fishermen listen to me
While I sing to you a song of the sea

CHORUS (after each verse)
Then blow ye winds westerly, westerly blow
We're bound to the southward, so steady we go

First comes the blue-fish a-wagging his tail,
He come up on the deck and yells all hands make sail

Next comes the eels with their nimble tails
They jumped up aloft and loosed all the sails

Next come the herrings with their little tails
The manned sheets and halyards and set all the sails

Next comes the porpoise with his short snout
He jumps on the bridge and yells ready about

Next comes the swordfish the scourge of the sea
The order he gives is Helm's a lee

Then comes the turbot as red as a beet
He shouts from the bridge stick out that foresheet

Having accomplished these wonderful feats
The blackfish sings out next to rise tacks and sheet

Next comes the whale the largest of all
Singing out from the bridge haul taut mainsail haul

Then comes the mackerel with his striped back
He flopped on the bridge and yelled board the main tack

Next comes the sprat the smallest of all
He sings out: haul well taut let go and haul

Then comes the catfish with his chuckle had
Out in the main chains for a heave of the lead

Next comes the flounder quite fresh from the ground
Crying damn your eyes chucklehead mind where you sound

Along came a dolphin flapping his tail
He yelled to the boatswain to reef the foresail

Along came the shark with his three rows of teeth
He flops on the foreyard and takes a snug reef

Up jumps the fisherman stalwart and grim
And with his big net he scooped them all in