councillors are demanding answers over why Dartmouth is missing out on economically important ship visits following a series of cancellations.

But harbourmaster Rob Giles said the town still cashed in on one cruise even though the ship went to Torbay.

And he said the harbour board was working hard to attract as many money-spinning cruise passengers as possible into the port.

But he warned: 'If a cruise line makes a decision based on safety or for commercial reasons I have no control over that.'

Dartmouth was hoping for a bumper year of cruise visits this year with more than a dozen liners expected to arrive in the Dart.

But the huge £165m 751ft-long Artania with more than 1,000 passengers, due in last Wednesday, sailed to Torbay instead.

And the Silver Explorer expedition ship with up to 132 passengers on board just did not show up.

The list of cancellations is even longer if you include two French warships which cancelled a visit in January because of bad weather and the visit by the Royal Navy's HMS Grimsby, which was due in February, which was also pulled.

The cruise ship business is a vital part of Dartmouth's economy as wealthy passengers stop off to visit shops and restaurants and see the local sights.

Town councillor Francis Hawke said there had been concerns that cruise ships were no longer making Dartmouth their destination and called for talks with the harbourmaster to find out why.

District councillor Hilary Bastone said he too was worried about cruise ships not coming to Dartmouth.

He said that both the council and the business forum should be looking at the cruise ship cancellations and 'asking question of the harbour authority as to why this is happening'.

Mr Giles told councillors that the Artania was so large she could not turn in the Dart and would have had to anchor out at sea and transport her passengers into the river and the town.

Because of weather conditions at the time it was decided to travel to Torbay instead to give the passengers a 'better transit ashore'.

But he said coach loads of passengers from the ship who had wanted to see Dartmouth still arrived in the town.

And he said the Silver Explorer cancellation was almost certainly down to the cruise line not being able to fill the trip.

'We are not in control of whether a cruise line cancels. We have good value for money marketing packages to market this port with cruise line companies but we are disadvantaged in that we don't have an agent in the town that is formally recognised,' he said.

'We work very hard to get cruise liners in. We are very keen to have them in the river because we know their value to the local community.'

The next cruise liner due in is the 139m-long FTI Berlin which is expected to arrive in the port on June 7 for a day. Three days later the tall ship Sea Cloud II is due in.