page_title: Post Office Packet Service
section_title: Falmouth Station
hierarchical_section_title: Post Office Packet Service / Stations / Falmouth Station
caption_attribution_description: Falmouth - Packet Service Memorial - Inscription
context_page_description: The Post Office Packet Service dates to Tudor times and ran until 1823, when the Admiralty assumed control of the service. Originally, the Post Office used packet ships to carry mail packets to and from British embassies, colonies and outposts. The vessels generally also carried bullion, private goods and passengers. The ships were usually lightly armed and relied on speed for their security. However, Britain was at war almost continuously during the 18th and early 19th centuries with the result that packet ships did get involved in naval engagements with enemy warships and privateers, and were occasionally captured.
context_section_description: Falmouth was a packet station since around 1688 and the Station has been the subject of studies by Arthur Norway (1895), Susan Gay (1903) and Tony Pawlyn (2003). During most of the 18th century and the early part of the 19th century, Britain was at war. The locale of Falmouth in Cornwall was favourable to the successful transmission of mail through the gauntlet of enemy naval ships and privateers. The value of the Falmouth Station grew as Napoleon implemented his Continental System, attempting to exclude British trade and communications with mainland Europe.
  In 1810 men of the packet service at Falmouth mutinied over pay levels. Previously, the sailors had been authorised to trade for their own account. When this was banned as smuggling, they objected to the resulting loss of income.
  In punishment for the refusal to man ships, the Post Office moved the Falmouth Packet Station to Plymouth. Much lobbying of the Postmaster General and HM Treasury by a delegation from Falmouth and by Cornwall's forty-four members of parliament followed. After considering Fowey as an alternative station, the Post Office agreed to return the service to Falmouth in January 1811.
  In 1843, Falmouth merchants persuaded H.M. Government not to move the Packet Station to Southampton, which was now served by a railway. The last packet arrived at Falmouth on 30 April 1851, and the Cornwall Railway did not reach Falmouth until 1863.
caption: Inscription on Falmouth Packet Service memorial
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