The Museum in 20 Facts

Here are 20 fascinating facts you may not know about us.

1. The Museum is like a TARDIS. This massive experience fits into only 2,600m2, roughly half the size of a football field.

2. Nearly 400 reinforced concrete pilings up to 15 metres long underpin the Museum building.

3. There are 52,251 slates on the roof, 4,000 tonnes of concrete, and 250 tonnes of steel within the concrete.

4. The new sea wall is built to withstand 100 years of saltwater corrosion. Even the possible effects of global warming were factored into the design.

5. About 16.6km of green oak planking cover the building – enough to make a walkway all the way up Mount Everest and back down again.

6. Our longest craft – and first to be installed in the Museum – is the 20 metre Eton 10 rowing boat, the shortest is the 1.4 metre coracle.

7. The oldest vessel is a dugout canoe dating back to the 1850s… our newest boat is the Autonaut, an automated vessel designed to survey the oceans.

8. Superdocius, sailed by Rodney Pattinson, won a string of championships and titles – including Gold at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

9. The Museum looks after 160 boats.

10. We have catalogued 13,590 items in our archives.

11. We have borrowed 3,280 objects from 400 museums, organisations and individuals.

12. We have sold enough Cornish pasties to stretch across the harbour to Flushing Beach and back, and enough tea and coffee to fill three large swimming pools.

13. We’ve employed a diver nearly 100 times to clean the windows in the Tidal Zone.

14. We have employed over 3,000 Cornwall and UK based artists and performers – including actors, dancers and musicians as well as designers, directors, riggers and technicians.

15. Our incredible team of volunteers have given us over 600,000 hours of their time, skills and enthusiasm.

16. We have dealt with 5,030 research enquiries, from 35 countries worldwide.

17. We have created 2,582 entries on the National Small Boat Register.

18. Over 100,000 school children having taken part in our hands-on curriculum enrichment workshops.

19. Over 500,000 visitors have taken part in our family learning activities.

20. We’ve had over 2.4 million visits from local people and tourists since opening.