Set'er again

Bert and I had been haddock fishing all summer
We was doing pretty good
Had been quite a good catch
We was enjoying the summer and making a pretty good living
And uh normally Bert would not come down the dock all that early
Wasn't that he wasn't interested in work
But I noticed a streak or more than 4,5,6 days in a row
He was down there quite early
I began to query him well what was the reason
And well it turned out his mother-in-law was visiting
Well, I could understand because ah
Well she was quite a character
And I thought it was good for him to spend most of his time a the water
And she was gonna stay for two weeks
and about the 13th day he was getting pretty happy
You know and
The last day of her visit
He was really beaming
Bout 5:30, 6:00 in the morning
Then we was just about to cast off
And we heard this awful groan
I looked over and I seen just what he seen
This big old Oldesmobile 88 with Massecusettes plates
You could tell it was her
All keeled over on one side
The shocks all gone you know
Now I like a heavy woman
My feeling is that they're
Shade in the summer and warmth in the winter
But
Well she come out on the dock and
She was bound and determined she was gonna go fishing with us that particular day
Well there wasn't much you could do
We set her down in the center of the boat
And kinda centered her as best we could
We headed out of the harbor
Trying to get out past the smooth spots there
After you get out of the mouth of the harbor you kind of get into them ground swells
You know like this, you know what I mean
Kind of sets regular and well
We just get there and she starts getting a little green around the gills
And shuffling lower and lower in the seat
You know, sliding down towards the bilge
And, waves got a little heavier
And she slid a little lower
And eventually we just kind of laid her down there
She began this low kind of moaning
You know as we began to hit them heavier waves
And, well it wasn't too long
Before she leant over the gunwhale and let off an awful load of chum
And I could see it was gonna be a long day of fishing
Well
We generally tend to like to set the boat in such a way you see
That the offshore breeze kind of kicks out this way
While the ground swell would push us in that way
We set pretty well without an anchor
We just kind of sat there and
But its a little rough, well
She was moaning and groaning
Course the bilge filled up a little bit with water
Of course that boats never been too tight
And as she filled up
And of course as we caught a few fish
And threw them down there too you know and
She was kind of sloshing a little more as that heft you know got going
Well it, you know we wasn't paying too much attention
Fore too long well we got hit with a pretty big size wave
And up she went
Right over the gunnel
And right down at the bottom
And it was very apparent right from the beginning
That there wasn't anything we could do
So we kept fishing
We finished out the day and come home
Course Bert's wife was awful upset you know
Like you'd imagine somebody would be
But there wasn't much you could do so
They had the memorial down at Massechusettes
And things kind of blowed over
Another two, three weeks went by and
Was down at the co-op one morning
One of the boys come over and says
You know uh
We found that body there
That uh, that lady that was out fishing with you boys
Two or three weeks back
She washed up down Mill Cove
Though we'd let you know
Well I says uh you don't say
I says what kind of shape was she in
Not too bad
Not too bad you'd be surprised
Pretty good shape
Although he says
There were probably about 12 or 14 good sized lobsters
I'd say about two pound lobsters clinging on to her
says we was wondering what you wanted us to to with the body
I says I'll talk to Bert
And I went and talked to him
Cause they already had the memorial down there at Massechusettes
And he asked me what you thought I oughta do
I says well
Considering the economy and the price of lobsters
I'd say set'er again!