St Ives takes its name from St Ia, the daughter of an Irish chieftain, who is said to have sailed to Cornwall in the mid 5th Century on a leaf, having missed the boat carrying other saints. Its Cornish name is Porthia ("Ia's cove") and its pre-Christian name is believed to be Pendennis ("headland fort").

Incorporated as a borough by Charles I in 1639, St Ives built its prosperity on pilchard fishing and the trade in Cornish slate and minerals. In 1770 the harbour was improved by the erection of a pier by John Smeaton (the builder of the Eddystone lighthouse) and this and later additions helped to protect the town from storm-blown sand which had periodically choked it in earlier centuries.

The arrival of the railway in 1877 and the growth of mass tourism soon turned St Ives into a popular holiday resort.

The coastline of Cornwall has always presented extreme danger. Whether entering the English or Bristol channel, a minor navigation error for a sailing ship could result in disaster. Click on the map to see which ships foundered on just a small stretch of Cornish coast.