How still lies the bay
In the light western air
That flows from the crimson horizon
Once more we tack home
With a dry empty hold
Saving gas with the breezes so fair
She's a kindly Cape Islander
Old but still sound
But so lost in the longliner's shadow
Make and break and make do
But the fish are so few
That she won't be replaced should she founder
In Make and Break Harbour
The boats are so few
Too many are pulled up and rotten
Most houses stand empty
Old nets hung to dry
Are blown away, lost, and forgotten
It's so hard not to think of before the big war
When the cod went so cheap but so plenty
Foreign trawlers go by now
With long-seeing eyes
Taking all where we seldom take any
And the young folk don't stay
With the fisherman's way
Long ago they all moved to the city
And the ones left behind
Old and tired and blind
Can't work for a pound for a penny
In Make and Break Harbour
The boats are so few
Too many are pulled up and rotten
Most houses stand empty
Old nets hung to dry
Are blown away, lost, and forgotten
I can see the big draggers
Have stirred up the bay
Leavin' lobster traps smashed on the bottom
Can they think it don't pay
To respect the old ways
That make and break men have not forgotten
For we still keep our time
To the turn of the tide
And this boat that I built with my father
Still lifts to the sky
The one lunger and I
Still talk like old friends on the water
In Make and Break Harbour
The boats are so few
Too many are pulled up and rotten
Most houses stand empty
Old nets hung to dry
Are blown away, lost, and forgotten
In Make and Break Harbour
The boats are so few
Too many are pulled up and rotten
Most houses stand empty
Old nets hung to dry
Are blown away, lost, and forgotten