Oh me name's Able Rodgers, a share man am I
On a three masted schooner from Twillingate Isle
I've been the world over north, south, east, and west
But the middle of nowhere's where I likes it best

CHORUS:
Where its wave over wave, sea over bow
I'm as happy a man as the sea will allow
There's no other life for a sailor like me
And to sail the salt sea boys, sail the sea
There's no other life but to sail the salt sea

Well I leave my wife lonely ten months of the year
For she built me a home and raised my children there
She never come out to bid farewell to me
Or ken why a sailor must sail the salt sea

CHORUS

Ah, the work it is hard and the hours are long
But my spirit is willing, my back it is strong
And when the works over the whisky will pour
We'll dance with the girls upon some foreign shore

I've sailed the world over for decades or more
And oft' times I wonder what I do it for
I don't know the answer its pleasure and pain
But with life to live over I'd do it again

CHORUS (x2)