Sit down. Sit down son.
I want to ask you once again.
This time will you come with me
To Sula Sgier, across the sea.
The men and I are leaving tonight.
We slip the moorings at midnight.
Vittled to last us two hard weeks.
Steer in the night north by north east.
Sixty miles on our true line
Beneath the cliffs we'll anchor down
800 years we've taken from here
Two thousand seabirds every year.
Seared and plucked and salted and stacked,
We sail two thousand gugas back,
And the people all smile from the harbour wall
For Gannet and potatoes on the table.
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Island folk a long time gone
Sustained on seabirds on their own
Year on year never left them short
Boiled in the porridge a puffin they caught
But life was hard then not like today
With food from sunny lands far away
But we'll tip our glass, we'll taste the sea
And I'll ask you now like my father asked me.
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Listen, father, I'm employed
By the power company from far abroad
Up to the peat hags each day I go
Where the great windtowers like trees they grow
'Cause the wind is fuel and the price is high,
For the voltage harvest of the sky
But my table is set and my bed is warm
And my children will find their way back home.
So father, father don't you see,
We're just the same both you and me
From the land and sea we take our share
White wings on the slant atlantic air
So when the wheat and barley's golden still
But before the heather's here
Call the men together again
And sail for Sula Sgier.
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East
Steer in the night North by North-East