As sung by Archie Fisher

Now it's three long years since we made her pay Ch: Sing haul away, my laddie O And we can't get by on the subsidy Ch: And sing haul away, my laddie O So it's heave away for the final trawl It's an easy pull for the catch is small Now it's stow yer gear, lads, and batten down Then I'll take the wheel, lads, and turn her round And we'll join the Venture and the Morning Star Riding high and empty beyond the bar For I'd rather beach her on the Skerry Rock Than to see her torched in the breaker's dock And it's when I die you can stow me down In her rusty hold where the breakers sound Then we'll make the Haven and the Fiddlers Green Where the grub is good and the bunks are clean For I fished a lifetime, boy and man And the final trawl scarcely nets a cran

This song was written in the late 20th century by Archie Fisher, Scottish folk singer and songwriter. It was recorded on his album Windward Away and covered by groups including The Clancy Brothers, Gordon Bok, Mike James, David Coffin, and Archie Fisher’s sister Cilla Fisher. Since the 1960s, communities all over the world have faced the collapse of fish populations due to overfishing. Bok’s liner notes to The First Fifteen Years, Vol. I, explains the origins of this song:

Archie Fisher said he wrote this song after seeing a couple of perfectly good steel trawlers rusting away on the ledges (skerries) outside a harbor in northern Scotland, and was told by fishermen that they have been drove there by their owners because, even with the government subsidy to help the fishermen, the fishing was so poor they still couldn’t make a living, and the men didn’t want to see them cut into scrap by the ship-breakers.

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