Heave Away, Haul Away!

Record Tracklist

  1. Heave Away, Haul Away! -:-- / 03:28
Written one day sitting on the end of the pier in Helvick Head guarding the mouth of Dungarvan Harbour in County Waterford. I watched the fishing boats come and go and noticed the distinctive absence of youth on those little vessels heading out to sea to make a rough living for those on board. Set in an earlier time but with the same echo of today… the hard fought battle between the independent fisherman and the mechanized, modernized, corporation boats.

lyrics

Oh Heave Away Haul Away, Heave Away Haul Away Me Boys
Heave Away Haul Away, Heave Away Haul Away Once More

For 43 Years I sailed the open sea
In a barque built by my father way back in ‘33
Now the steamers have the trade but they’ll never have her line
And the time has come to bid farewell and sail her one last time

So let’s heave away again me boys and we’ll get the nets on board
And we’ll haul her around put her four square to the wind
And we’ll make the long run home me boys we’ll make the long run home

For a sailors life you see is a life upon the foam
With your nights spent in a swinging bunk a thousand miles from home
And my sons they are all bankers and they will not go to sea
So two hundred years of fishing lads ends the line with me