There's a fair sou'west wind over Notre Dame Bay
As the crew tend the riggin', and the grub's stowed away
With the name of he skippers first child on her side
The Nellie W. sails on the tide

From Twillingate Island, out past the French Shore
Up North to catch cod, on the cold Labrador
To make up for this year what last year denied
The Nellie W. sails on the tide

With cod traps and fish salt and hard tack and rum
A new mast for the mainsail for the gales yet to come
Edgar Warr as the skipper, Bob Smart at his his side
The Nellie W. sails on the tide.

They haul up the anchor and unfurl the sails
The cook cracks a joke, and the mate tells the tale
Of the iceberg she dodged and the storm she defied
The Nellie W. sails on the tide

With the merchants so stingy and the fish hard to find
For three desperate years it's been punish and grind
But they all swear that this year they'll come home with pride
When the Nellie W. returns on the tide

It's out of the harbour and into the swell
Tacking down the main tickle, past the Burnt Island bell
The Twillingate lighthouse slides by on the lee
And the Nellie W. sails out to sea

And those left on shore, just don't understand
How a slick rolling deck is more solid then land
But the sharemen who love her could never abide
To watch the Nellie from shore as she sails on the tide