Grace Anderson                                 SA1971.220.9 

Gavin Greig said about this song: “There are not many traditional songs dealing with fisherfolk; and as for fisher folk themselves they do not seem to have any old minstrelsy dealing with their special calling.  If they have we have failed to recover any specimens” (Folk Song of the North East, 1906-07,  no. cliii); but there are a number of versions of this song in the Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection (vol 3. p 268-270) and it was apparently published  on a broadside in Dundee.
They concern a conversation between stranger who approaches a young lass whom he sees collecting bait along the shore.  Grace’s verses use lines from the second and the last two verses.

John Hughson also sang this song (see below) and while similar it  is clearly a man’s version!

For her rosie cheeks and her yellow hair’ for an empress she might pass
And the creel she trudges daily does my bonnie fisher lass.

“My father’s on the ocean, a-toiling in his boat 
To earn an honest livelihood though oft-times he’s afloat 

And if a storm arises, I’m down upon the pier
And stand and watch them dearly for his boat to appear.

For if he should find a watery grave and thus be from us cast,
I’d wander broken-hearted.’”  Says the bonnie fisher lass 

For her rosie cheeks and her yellow hair, for an empress she might pass
And the creel she trudges daily does my bonnie fisher lass.

————

John Hughson                                     SA1974.06.7

Asked where he learned this song, Johnny said he just heard the old men singing it.

My father’s out upon the sea, a toiling in his boat
To earn an honest livelihood so often he’s afloat.

But when he does return again he lovingly will press
Unto his aged bosom his bonnie fisher lass.

Her rosy cheeks and her yellow hair for an empress she might pass
But the creel she trudges daily does my bonnie fisher lass.

Her petticoats they were so short, just a strip below her knee
Her handsome legs and ankles they fair delighted me

Her rosy cheeks and her yellow hair for an empress she might pass
But the creel she trudges daily does my bonnie fisher lass.