– locally and regionally – presents The Steamboat with a pub-of-the-year certificate, the local press invariably leads on the “best boozer” line. They could, of course, use alehouse, inn or tavern, but boozer invites little expectation, so the reality of eight hand-pulled beers fronting an archaic interior with nautical paraphernalia covering every surface creates an intriguing prospect.

I took the ferry from North Shields, a six-minute, often choppy and blustery crossing that whets the appetite with blasts of North Sea breeze (and the occasional sniff of diesel). My mate was envious – he likes adventure.

The Steamboat’s main bar has only a smattering of furniture in what is clearly a traditional “vertical drinking” area which makes sense on weekends and Customs House theatre nights. A few steps beyond, however, are three timber-clad-with-comfy-seating snugs unveiling a similar relaxed attitude and conversational undertone.

I tap the glass on one of dozens of gauges and dials on display and try to fathom what a barometer is warning. It couldn’t be that bad, could it? Flags from a multitude of nations cover every inch of ceiling above lifebelts, lobster pots and seafaring images – many of them ships built on this stretch of riverside with customers’ grandads’ tales welded into them, although few signs of that industry remain. Swish apartments, now there’s another story.

My locally-brewed pints – Durham South Island IPA, oozing vibrant New Zealand hops, and Cullercoats Ernest, owing its aroma and flavour to a new English hop variety – make my day. Then I examine an exhibit of knots in fascination at the function of Spanish bowline, round turn, sheepshank and clove hitch.

The return ferry wallows and dips. I should have trusted that barometer.

*The Steamboat, Mill Dam, South Shields NE33 1EQ. 0191 454 0134.