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Dartmouth, England


The town seen from the River Dart.


Part of the town's river front.


Kingswear seen from Dartmouth.

Dartmouth is a town in Devon in the south-west of England. It is a major tourist attraction set on the banks of the picturesque River Dart.

The town is dominated by the Royal Navy Officer Training college (Brittania College) and all officers of the Royal Navy, as well as many foreign navies, are trained there.

The Pilgrim Fathers put into Dartmouth's Bayard's Cove, en-route from Southampton to America. They rested a while before setting off on their journey in the Mayflower and the Speedwell on the 20th August 1620. About 300 miles west of Land's End, they realised that the Speedwell was unseaworthy and returned to Plymouth. The Mayflower departed alone to complete the crossing to Cape Cod.

The mouth of the Dart is protected by two fortified castles, Dartmouth Castle and Kingswear Castle.

Thomas Newcomen, the inventor of the Steam pumping engine was born in Dartmouth in 1663.