Falmouth Docks

Falmouth Docks are a deep-water docks of the town of Falmouth in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The docks are the southern shore of the Fal Estuary which is the third largest natural harbour in the world and the deepest in Europe. They extend over 30 ha and covers a range of services to shipping such as repair, refuelling, cleaning and disposal of waste services. The docks are served by the Falmouth Docks railway station. Policing is by the Falmouth Docks Police.

The town of Falmouth is on the south coast of Cornwall in the sheltered natural harbour of the River Fal. Because of the danger of attacks from the sea the earliest towns were inland at Penryn, Tregony and Truro. In the late 17th-century the small town of Falmouth developed with shipbuilding and chandlers and the import of iron, coal, charcoal and timber, and the export of fish to the Mediterranean countries and tin. The Post Office selected Falmouth for its Packet Service in 1688 to Spain and Portugal. A sheltered harbour in the south-west meant ships did not have to sail down channel against westerlies and the Lizard Peninsula gave shelter from those same westerlies. At Its peak In the early 19th-century there were forty vessels sailing to seven ′stations′. A map of Falmouth Haven in the British Museum shows, on the site of Falmouth Docks, Porthan Withe which translates from Cornish as the ″port of shelter or protection″.

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