Pictures reveal port’s varied life (From Falmouth Packet)

Pictures reveal port’s varied life

11:01am Wednesday 25th August 2010 in In Port By David Barnicoat

THE pictures featured on this week’s In Port page in the Falmouth, Penryn/Helston Packets will no doubt bring back memories for many Packet readers.

All taken from the David Barnicoat Collection, the images recall the two faces of the town’s waterfront – a working port and the destination for luxury cruise ships and impressive sailing ships.

The two pictures at the top of the page show a busy port during previous Tall Ships festivals. Top left is a an image captured on a memorable day in 2008 and shows the cruise ship Saga Ruby passing the Funchal 500 Tall Ships fleet. Top right is an image taken during the 1998 Tall Ships Festival.

Below the Tall Ships pictures, the black and white picture of the basin at Custom House Quay is pure nostalgia.

The quiet scene shows the tugs Lynch, St Mawes and St Eval alongside North Quay taking water. In the basin is the Trinity House pilot boat Harry Slater undergoing an engine refit carried out by Visick and Sons whose workshops were in the white building now the Shipwright’s bar.

Ahead of the pilot boat is the house boat owned by “Skip” Wallace, a gentleman who took many local boys to sea to show them the ropes.

The two pictures of Falmouth Docks, below left, were taken some 23 years apart. In the aerial view, snapped in 1950, the docks is choc-a-block with vessels undergoing work.

In the other picture, the docks is seen from Grove Place in about 1933. Of particular interest is the railway line in the foreground.

I presume this was laid to allow trains to dump waste from the drydock construction for infilling from what is now Trago Mills down to the old submarine pier area.