Come, all ye young sailormen, listen to me, I'll sing you a song of the fish of the sea. Ch: Then blow ye winds westerly, westerly blow, Ch: We're bound to the south'ard, so steady she goes! Oh, first come the whale, the biggest of all; He clumb up aloft and let every sail fall. And next come the mack'rel with his strip-ed back; He hauled aft the sheets and boarded each tack. Then come the porpoise with his short snout; He went to the wheel, calling "Ready! About!" Then come the smelt, the smallest of all; He jumped to the poop and sung out "Topsail, haul!" The herring come saying, "I'm king of the seas, If you want any wind, why, I'll blow you a breeze." Next come the cod with his chuckle-head; He went to the main-chains to heave at the lead. Last come the flounder as flat as the ground; Says "Damn your eyes, chuckle-head, mind how you sound!"

A favorite in the merchant service and the Banks fishermen, this song is noted in Kipling’s Captains Courageous. The Boston Come-All-Ye is the more American title. The chorus comes from a Scottish (or perhaps Tyneside) fishing song, “Blaw the Wind Southerly” (Roud 2619). The earliest extant print source is an 1834 publication called The Bishoprick Garland by Cuthbert Sharp.

Colcord’s (Roll and Go) version differs almost entirely from Capt. Whall’s (Sea Songs and Shanties).