This is a song of obscure origins but I understand that the earliest recording of it was done by the BBC \u2013 A Peter Kennedy recorded Harry Cox singing it in 1956. It is surely of older stock and references place it to perhaps the late 19th century \u2013 In \u201cShips, Sea Songs and Shanties\u201d (1913) , Capt. W. B. Whall indicates that it is not of recent composition and at one time was used to the tune of \u201cBlow The Man Down\u201d. In \u201cCaptains Courageous\u201d, Rudyard Kipling comments that it was a common song among the Banks fishermen and other sources comment that it was peculiar to fishermen of East Anglia on the east coast of England\u2026 Clearly it had been adopted by the mid-20th century throughout the English speaking sea song world. It was first introduced to me as a pumping chantey but being used for that does not necessarily mean that it was made for that. It is a good one for singing in the presence of children and there are myriad versions now in circulation. The version below I learned from the singing of Tommy Makem.<\/p>\n
Jos. Morneault<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chorus: Well up jumped the herring, the king of the sea. Then up jumped the mackerel with his striped back. Then up jumped the sprat; the smallest of all. Then up jumped the crab with his great long claw. Then up jumped the herring all broken and spent. Then up jumped the herring right under the lee. Then up jumped the herring, the king of the shoal. This is a song of obscure origins but I understand that the earliest recording of it was done by the BBC \u2013 A Peter Kennedy recorded Harry Cox singing it in 1956. It is surely of older stock and references place it to perhaps the late 19th century \u2013 In \u201cShips, Sea Songs and Shanties\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":21,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4730","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4730"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4921,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4730\/revisions\/4921"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 In this windy ol\u2019 weather. Stormy ol\u2019 weather.<\/strong><\/em>
\n.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Boys, when the wind blows, we\u2019ll all go together.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\nHe sang out, \u201cOl\u2019 skipper, now you can\u2019t catch me!\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHe sang out, \u201cOl\u2019 skipper, come haul the main tack\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHe sang out, \u201cOl\u2019 skipper, come haul your trawl haul.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHe sang out, \u201cOl skipper, you\u2019ll run us ashore!\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHe sang, \u201cDrifting\u2019s finished, now who\u2019ll pay the rent?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHe sang, \u201cDrifting\u2019s finished; who\u2019ll bother with me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHe sang, \u201cDrifitng\u2019s finished. Gotta stay on the dole.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"