Three Fishers

"Three Fishers" is a poem and a ballad written in 1851. The original poem was written by English poet, novelist and preacher, Charles Kingsley. It was first set to music by English composer John Hullah shortly thereafter. Robert Goldbeck also set it to music in a version published in 1878.

Some more recent recordings of the song follow a musical arrangement created by Garnet Rogers in the 1980s, first recorded by his brother Stan on For the Family. It was also used in Ralph Fiennes's film, The Invisible Woman (2013), about Charles Dickens and his mistress Ellen Ternan.

The short film by D.W. Griffith, The Unchanging Sea (1910) was inspired by the "Three Fishers" poem. The first stanza is used in the film itself.

The poem tells the story of three fishermen who sail out to sea, and lose their lives when overtaken by a storm. It describes the tragic loss of the fishermen's lives to their families. Hullah's music is described as a "plaintive air" which enhances Kingsley's poem.

Three fishers went sailing out into the West,
Out into the West as the sun went down;
Each thought on the woman who lov’d him the best;
And the children stood watching them out of the town;
For men must work, and women must weep,
And there's little to earn, and many to keep,
Though the harbour bar be moaning.

Three wives sat up in the light-house tower,
And they trimm’d the lamps as the sun went down;
They look’d at the squall, and they look’d at the shower,
And the night wrack came rolling up ragged and brown!
But men must work, and women must weep,
Though storms be sudden, and waters deep,
And the harbour bar be moaning.

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Wikipedia