The target lands were to the south and along both North Sea coasts. Travel was by open boat, rowed or sailed. Long sea crossings would have been avoided. Sailing by night was, and is, suicidally dangerous. The route, well known to Saxon pirates, lay along the Friesian islands, down the Dutch coast, threading the sand bars to the salt marshes and tidal inlets than then characterized the coast north of Calais. From this refuge, sea currents lead due west to land-falls in Kent, south-west to Sussex or north-west to Essex and the Thames estuary.

Roman forces defending Britannia confirm this by their deployment. The Count of the Saxon Shore put his main force on the British side of the shore. His forts denied access from the sea. They are known from Brancaster in Norfolk to the Straits of Dover and south and west to Porchester, the last fort on the Solent. Obviously the oldest names should be, and are, found in in north-eastern, eastern and south-eastern parts of England. They are also found along the North Sea coast opposite Kent.