Falmouth and a little history

On a lovely sunny day we drove 20 miles south from Truro to Falmouth, in order to visit the Maritime Museum.    Falmouth is a port on the river Fal, and is the largest port in Cornwall.   It is still a cargo port as well as being popular with cruise ships.   The town has 26,767 residents living there. It is, of course, popular with tourists, so I guess it is primarily a tourist resort now.       

During the 18th and 19th century the Falmouth Packet Service operated from here, the purpose being to carry mail to and from Britain's growing empire.   As it was the most south-westerly harbour in Great Britain, it was extremely busy as a cargo and naval port.  

Falmouth was also the departure point for most Cornish people who emigrated to other countries, especially after the collapse of the tin and copper mines, when there were 6,000 requests for emigration tickets..   By 1901 over 259,000 Cornish people had left Cornwell.   This included quite a few of my relatives, who left the villages of Probus and Tregoney, both near Truro.   My  great, great grandmother, a widow with nine children, emigrated to New Zealand in 1873.   Such bravery, but there was probably not a lot for them in Cornwall, and as other relatives and friends also emigrated, they were not on their own.   Most of the family and friends were miners, or in related industries.    The family names were Ellis and Blackler, which I believe were old Cornish names.   

A large number of miners emigrated to South Australia and started copper mining in Moonta and it was interesting to visit the town last January and see the buildings, old mine and industries that were established during the late 1800s.   Interestingly Moonta has the best Cornish pasties.

I forgot to take the family information with me, so did not visit the two villages, although we passed through them on trips out from Truro, but it may have been interesting to stop, and look around.  So much has changed of course.

 

The old Port of Falmouth, redeveloped with chain restaurants (photograph below) and a Maritime Museum (first photograph above).  In the 1800s there would have been no Pizza Express to have a pizza feast before embarking on a sailing ship.   

The museum contained many small boats and yachts, which Jackson and Isabel found really interesting.

How they would have loved being out on water on this jet ski.

A lovely cubby hole for Isabel, but not bobbing around on a rough sea.

Coin in the slot mini yachts.   They had a lot of fun trying to manouvre them around, via the remote controls.

There was an exhibition about Shackleton, plus a film about the ill fated expedition to the South Pole.  Both Jackson and Isabel had read a book about Shackleton, and had done some study about the expedition at school, so they were very interested in the display.

There was also a display about a sailor, Tony Bullimore, whose yacht capsized in the southern ocean.   He spent five days lying in the keel of the upturned yacht before he was rescued.   He had made a video of his ordeal, which Isabel especially did not like.  No doubt turned her right off sailing.

The upstairs part contained a few historical displays, including lists of all the ships that entered and left the port during the 1800s.   A pity I did not bring the names of the ships my relatives left on, when emigrating to New Zealand.

Walter and I bought Cornish pasties for lunch, for us, which were passable, I thought.   Jackson and Isabel chose to eat at McDonalds which was conveniently located on the road out of Fulmouth.  Modern children.