Helmsdale Herring, by Wounded Knee

Helmsdale Herring

by Wounded Knee

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This reworked version of Ewan MacColl's "Shoals Of Herring" is based on research during my Archive Trails residency at the School Of Scottish Studies and relocates the narrator from Great Yarmouth to the East Neuk of Fife. Recorded live in the wonderful acoustics of the old Icehouse at Helmsdale. The photo (by Neil Irving) is of sculptures on the doors by Ruth MacDougall.
Thanks also to Jen Gordon @ Anstruther Fisheries Museum

lyrics

Well it was a fine and a pleasant day
out of Anster harbour I was faring
As a half dailsman on a Fifie drifter
we were hunting for the bonnie shoals of herring

Well the work was hard and the hours long
and the treatment sure it took some bearing
There was little kindness and the kicks were many
as we chased the bonnie shoals of herring

Well we fished the Hurst and the Bulla Ness
I was cook and I'd a quarter sharing
And I used to sleep standing on my feet
dreaming of the silver shoals of herring

In the summer months we'd the Lammas Drave
then for Yarmouth waters we're preparing
Far and wide we'd roam months away from home
we were following the bonnie shoals of herring

Well they used the ring nets in the west
but us east coast boys we stuck with the drifting
Different types of fishing fierce the competition
aye ye're hunting for the shoals of herring

Well I earned my keep and I paid my way
and I owned the clothes that I was wearing
Sailed a million miles caught ten million fishes
that we'd taken from the bonnie shoals of herring

Sixteen fathom on the cork rope
Seventeen fathom on the foot rope
Heave ho! we're haulin in the herring
You silver darlings oh you silver darlings
Haul away boys haul away
Heave ho! Heave ho!