Image and caption: On board the fishing boat Alden, out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. After the seining net is pulled in with its catch, the mother boat pulls alongside, and the skipper and the cook help lash the big net to its railing. Here a large dip net scoops the fish from the nets to the decks. Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information photograph collection (Library of Congress) LC-USW3- 031207-D

Lyrics:
When you’re pushing late into the season
And hard weather rolls around
You’re praying for the mercy of Mary and  Jesus
But you’d settle for some solid ground
 
When you’re making best speed to Gloucester
But you’ve still got forever to go
And you’re hoping the skipper knows the boat like a lover
So he can rock when she wants to roll
 
‘Cause out a little later and deeper
Meant hauling a little more in
It seemed like a fine idea sir
When the pickings started getting thin
 
But you’ll forgive my second thoughts now
As I make my peace with God
That my wife may be waiting on the Widow’s Walk
For the sake of a few damn cod
 
Now some folks toil in a factory
And others till the soil
Still others work beneath the earth
Mining for coal and oil
And some folks go down and don’t come up cause of a tunnel caving in
And others go trawling on the Flemish Cap and never come back again
 
Seems even the bounty of nature
Can’t last when it’s bonded and bought
Whether forests plowed under for profit
Or seas  where the cod’s all been caught
 
Now the industry's greed won't be sated
Till all the fish are dead
But ain’t it worse if what comes first
Is using up the fishermen instead?
 
Now some folks toil in a factory
And others till the soil
Still others work beneath the earth
Mining for coal and oil
And some folks go down and don’t come up cause of a tunnel caving in
And others go trawling on the Flemish Cap and never come back again