My father was the keeper of the Bell Rock Light.
And he married a mermaid one dark night.
From his union there came three.
A codling and a kipper and the other was me.
Yo-ho-ho and the winds blow free.
Over the waves of the cold north sea.
There's fish for you and there's fish for me.
When you're swimming with a mermaid in the bottom of the sea.
One night I took a tinker to the glen.
Singing the verse of an evening hymn.
A voice from the darkness shouted, "Ahoy!"
And there was my mother, she was sitting on a boy.
Yo-ho-ho and the winds blow free.
Over the waves of the cold north sea.
There's fish for you and there's fish for me.
When you're swimming with a mermaid in the bottom of the sea.
Now don't think me foolish, don't think me mad.
A mermaid sitting out on top of a lad.
For I don't mean a "boy" as in juvenile male.
But a "buoy" that guides the ships at sail.
Yo-ho-ho and the winds blow free.
Over the waves of the cold north sea.
There's fish for you and there's fish for me.
When you're swimming with a mermaid in the bottom of the sea.
Whatever became of my children three?
My mother all inquired of me.
One made his fortune as a talking fish.
And the other was served as a breakfast dish.
Yo-ho-ho and the winds blow free.
Over the waves of the cold north sea.
There's fish for you and there's fish for me.
When you're swimming with a mermaid in the bottom of the sea.
Now the moonlight glanced on a silvery scale.
And that was the end of my mother's tale.
Her words echoed out as she sank out of sight.
"Keep a lookout for your mother and the Bell Rock Light."
Yo-ho-ho and the winds blow free.
Over the waves of the cold north sea.
There's fish for you and there's fish for me.
When you're swimming with a mermaid in the bottom of the sea.
Yo-ho-ho and the winds blow free.
Over the waves of the cold north sea.
There's fish for you and there's fish for me.
When you're swimming with a mermaid in the bottom of the sea.