National Maritime Museum Cornwall, Cornwall, United Kingdom

4singhasam 5:00 PM Mar 30, 2022

A Tide of Tourism
THERE are not many places where the incoming tide rises over your head yet you stay completely dry. One such place is a display area at Falmouth's National Maritime Museum which has been created with a large reinforced glass fillet in one wall so visitors can observe passing sea life at high tide, low tide and everything in between. It is a striking place which even has an Easter Island head created from bits and pieces of plastic including lego pieces from a lost cargo. The interior of the display area is suitably cool and moist and by concentrating on the murky tide lapping on the other side of the glass we eventually spotted one very small fish. That was it although information boards assured us that many different types of fish and other sea life were regularly spotted through the window. That statement sparked my only criticism of the museum. If a wide range of sea life is regularly spotted through the glass....then how? When we were there the seaward side of the window didn't look as if it had been cleaned for a long time with algae, shell life, dirty smears and I don't know what clinging tenaciously to the glass which made seeing out a lot harder than it should have been. One diver, a scraping tool and a scrubbing brush and the window could be cleaned in just a few minutes. Management please take note. Fortunately the rest of the museum scored a clean sweep of interesting displays. The craft on display including, Father's Day, the smallest one to cross the Atlantic had some fascinating tales to tell. How one family survived on a small craft for weeks after their vessel was sunk by killer whales is beyond me. The Monsters of the Deep exhibition was also very good while a display wall of 100 forearms illustrating examples of the tattoo artist's profession was very interesting. We had a nice cup of coffee and some shortbread in the very friendly cafe area, used toilets which were very well maintained and finally made our way up to the observation deck soaring above Falmouth Harbour for some lovely views. This was a few hours well spent and we felt it was worth the nearly £30 we paid to get in.

3Boho1979 5:00 PM Jun 10, 2022

Falmouth Maritime Museum
I want to be really complementary about the museum as lots of people recommended it to me when they knew I was coming to Falmouth. However unfortunately I can't be. We hadn't intended on going but we got off the St Mawes Ferry literally next to the building and it looked like the rain had set in so we went to pass the time and stay dry as we had been told it was worth it. I have to say I was disappointed, it was expensive as it cost us over £30 for two adults. Fine if you are local as you can go as many times as you want within a year but I'm thinking they are dependant on tourists, and even as a local I wouldn't return after this visit. Both myself and my husband are Mariners having spent many a year at sea so you would of thought we would find at least something to draw us in and interest us, but unfortunately not. On reflection I think the recommendations we got were based on the location not the actual museum as outside is a very nice area with restaurants with outdoor seating, and a few shops. A area the town has clearly built to attract tourists