LIME juice will be at a premium in Lancaster this weekend as thousands upon thousands of shanty-singing sailors hit the city the Maritime Festival and Trafalgar Victory Fair.

Lime juice, you ask? Well, it will be needed to go with their preferred tipple of rum to help get rid of the scurvy.

The festival - possibly Lancaster's last following the threatened withdrawal of city council funding - ties in with 'SeaBritain 2005', a nationwide promotion to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar and Admiral Horatio Nelson's death.

The festival also seeks to highlight the important contemporary social and economic impact which the sea still has on the UK - and the Lancaster event will be the first major event of its calendar.

The Nelson and Trafalgar theme will be vividly represented at the Trafalgar Victory Fair, which is set in the Spring of 1806.

This will feature authentically-costumed, role-playing re-enactors, creating all the sights, sounds and entertainments of a provincial fair of the period.

There will be a number of highlights including a 'Death of Nelson' drama presented from a 'commodious booth', the spectacle of the National Sedan Chair Carrying Championships and the ever-present menace of the press gang, who will be vigorous in their endeavours to maintain the supply of recruits to King George's glorious Royal Navy!

In addition, sea songs and shanties will be supported by a vast array of maritime-themed events and activities such as ships-in-bottles; ropework and knot-tying demon-strations.

There will also be illustrated talks and guided walks; salty storytelling; navy rum promotions; curious nautical characters and a grand celebration of seaside favourites Punch & Judy.

On both Saturday and Sunday, a full programme of festival events also takes place at the historic settlement of Glasson Dock, which still operates as a working port.

Liverpool's preserved Brockle-bank tug and the Environment Agency's research vessel, Coastal Guardian will both be in dock and available for the public to visit.