[Verse 1]
Oh me name Able Rogers a shareman am I
On a three-masted scooner from Twilingate 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 it's 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
Than to sail the salt sea boys, to sail the sea
There's no other life but to sail the salt sea

[Verse 2]
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 can why a sailor must sail the salt sea

[Chorus]
Where it's 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
Than to sail the salt sea boys, to sail the sea
There's no other life but to sail the salt sea
[Verse 3]
Oh 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 whiskey will pour
We'll dance with the girls upon some foreign shore

[Verse 4]
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, it's pleasure and pain
But with life to live over I'd do it again

[Chorus]
Where it's 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
Than to sail the salt sea boys, to sail the sea
Where it's 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
Than to sail the salt sea boys, to sail the sea
There's no other life but to sail the salt sea
Ohh ohhhh