Each place has its potted local history, which includes the famous (or infamous) inhabitants and maritime sights or architecture, augmented by the customs and the patterns of local industry.

For example, you may have known that many of the fisherwomen of Scotland followed the shoals, their lives determined by the wandering fish.

But were you aware that the phrase 'knowing the ropes' came from the need for sailors to be familiar with those essential seafaring knots. Or that the term 'red herring' came from the preserved fish's ability to throw hounds off the scent or, stranger still, that 'you can never drown if you go to sea in a bowler hat'?

On many pages, a few lines of conversation, traditional prose or poetry adds an interesting note to the background. In Great Yarmouth a landlady wished to record Lord Admiral Nelson's visit by changing the name of her pub to the 'Nelsons Arms'. He wasn't in favour, 'because he had but one', as he put it.

JB Priestly also adds something to the tone. Quoted as saying that the trawling ports were the homes of 'a race apart, perhaps the last of the wild men in this tamed island of ours,'. He went on to say these were 'fellows capable of working day and night without food or sleep, and then also capable of going on the booze with equal energy and enthusiasm.' Not much change there, then.

Although this kind of thing is the staple of the book, alongside the colourful, (though small format) illustrations and photos, there are some entries that make it to the level of the plainly quirky. One entry is of a museum that has a chicken in it, rescued from the offshore Scrobie Sands just as the tide was threatening to drown the bird. However, no-one was able to work out how it got there in the first place.

Maritime Britain
By Paul Heiney
Published by Adlard Coles Nautical
ISBN 0 - 7136 - 7091 - 6
Softback, 296 pages
Price £12.99