It's busk ye, me lads, get you up on the deck
And take up your stations for hauling the nets
And mind you pull together boys all through the night
And sweat in your oilskin until it's daylight
At the heave and haul and shaking of nets 

It's when we're start hauling we're living in hopes
The boy in the locker the lads on the ropes
And the fellows in the hold who are pulling the nets
And shaking the herring out on to the deck
With the heaving and hauling and the shaking of nets 

It's net after net its pulled up from the sea
With a haul and a shake and a one, two and three
And the herring are a piling around your sea boots
And slithering and sliding down into the shoots
And we're heaving and hauling and shaking of nets 

It's hour after hour we are hauling away
All through the long night till the dawn of the day
And the skipper's in the wheelhouse he's on the R T
And the cook's in the galley a brewing the tea
And we're finished with hauling and shaking of nets