I remember that scene in The West Wing (well it had Josh in it, my favourite character.) If the one we're most used to was designed primarily for sailors it makes sense that Britain is almost right in the middle! Though I always assumed the basic arrangement with the Americas to the left and Europe and points East to the right was so that it doesn't have a vast amount of not-very-much, i.e. the Pacific, taking up large areas of the map with the land masses chased off to the edges.