As an island nation, Britain has always had a great maritime tradition. Whilst large ocean-going vessels still dominate international trade, the small coasters and freighters which regularly plied between the major ports and harbors of the British Isles have, over the past 20 years, largely disappeared.

In the 1960s and 1970s, it was still possible to see large numbers of these traditional coasters and freighters in and around Britain's ports and harbors and, during these years, the late Kenneth Whiteman traveled widely recording these vessels and the dockyards they used.

Apart from the obvious interest to maritime enthusiasts in seeing images of these long-lost ships, the photographs also show much of the dockyard infrastructure such as cranes and warehouses, that are now as much a part of history as the ships portrayed.