Under the Sea/First and Last/Falmouth for Orders

National Maritime Museum Cornwall

Just as the sea is never still, so the National Maritime Museum in Cornwall is constantly in motion.

Large parts of its exhibition space, which would be considered permanent displays in other less ambitious museums, are changed on a regular basis. This is done not just because it's a good way of attracting new and repeat visitors, but also because it gets more of the collection on display and creates a challenging and stimulating environment for the staff who work there.

The museum's new temporary exhibition, Under the Sea, which explores people's adventures under the water, was conceived and written in-house and is the better for it.

The curators have picked out interesting stories and personalities to illustrate the themes. So, as well as a replica of the first wooden submarine, the Drebbel, there are also sections on free-diving, wrecks and underwater photography.

The theme of the exhibition is broken down into manageable chunks that are hooked around key objects. These include a diving bell, which at first glance looks like an ugly metal block. But visitors can climb in and, thanks to 1950s footage of a diving bell at work in St Katharine Docks in London, they can get a real feel for how it operated and what it was like to work in one.

There have been many wrecks off the Cornish coast, but the story of the Flying Enterprise, which went down 40 miles from Falmouth in 1951, is worthy of being told in detail.

The heroic tale made news on both sides of the Channel and the display includes the front cover of Paris Match magazine. It also features the record that immortalised the captain's bravery, as well as a porthole and a lamp salvaged from the wreck itself.

Throughout the display, clear bold graphics illustrate the salient points. So to explain the depth of the trench zone (10,000 metres below sea level) a graphic compares the depth to an upside down Mount Everest - plus 2km.

There is a great section on free-diving - the sport of diving without breathing apparatus - which is hooked around the story of Cornish free-diving champion Hannah Stacey. Amazingly, she can hold her breath for more than four minutes and film footage shows her in action as Kelly Brook's stunt double in Fishtales.

The mythology of mermaids is explored in this part of the exhibition in a way that will appeal to younger visitors and fascinate older ones.

The display tells the story of the famous Ama pearl divers and explains why women are better at this sport than men (it's to do with layers of fat apparently). Simple interactives, including using a magnet to pull a small plastic diver down a water-filled tube, help to explain the physiology behind free diving.

Well-told stories

The stories are so well told that even the most mundane-sounding objects become fascinating. A good example is the decompression chamber in the Descent into Danger section, which explains the treatment of the "bends".

Suspended directly above the display is a selection of the small boats from the collection. Figures of divers have been hung from the bottom of the boats, which adds to the atmosphere.

The first port of call

The museum's new permanent gallery, First and Last, tells the story of the town's development as the first and last port of call in the UK. The gallery is part of the Cornwall Galleries and the aim is to provide some local history and context to the maritime story told in the rest of the museum.

Falmouth is the UK's most westerly deep-water port and, because it provided ships with easy access to the Atlantic, it was chosen in the mid-17th century as a base for a packet ship service. Also, on the way back from voyages, ships would call at Falmouth to make repairs and receive orders for their onward destinations.

This is an interesting story that is probably little known outside of Falmouth and maritime circles. So it's a shame that it's told in such a stilted fashion. There are plenty of graphic panels, text and labels, but often the order is not logical and the story is overshadowed by wordy descriptions. Too many styles, colours and graphics compete for the attention of visitors.

Despite the fact that the Packet Service was intrinsically linked to the expansion of trade and empire, there is only one passing reference to the slave trade, which explains that during this period, sugar accounted for a quarter of all England's shipping trade and that thousands of African slaves were taken to the West Indies to work on plantations. Less than a year after the commemoration of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, this feels like a cursory mention.

There are some nice touches, such as the reconstruction of part of a passenger cabin on one of the packet ships. Nearby at a listening post, visitors can hear a recital of Byron's funny and evocative 1809 poem, Falmouth Roads, which was written when he travelled as a passenger on a packet ship.

Falmouth for Orders continues the story, explaining how the town became the first port of call for ships bringing their cargoes back to Britain to receive orders for their onward destinations.

Although an engaging story, it is hampered by poor design and a lack of cohesive narrative. Each text panel begins with a large quote from one Captain Snellman. The quotes lead neatly into the different parts of the story and provide a link between the sections. But who is Snellman? We never find out.

What the gallery does do well is pick out some of the more interesting points and characters in history. This is encapsulated in the display of John Burton's Old Curiosity shop.

There is a close link between the shipping trade and the shop, as it was filled with strange and exotic spoils brought back from foreign shores by sailors. A re-creation of Burton's shop front with the exotica on sale ranging from Nelson's bedpan to an elephant's foot is intriguing.

A section completing the Falmouth story and bringing the story up to date will be completed this month. Let's hope the clarity of narrative and design shown in the Under the Sea exhibition will be applied to this final display.