Joseph Muscat: the loss of an encyclopaedic mind about Malta’s maritime history

Blog post by Vincent Ellul

Some 15 years ago, I was restoring a property, and whilst removing layers upon layers of antique water paint, I found a “graffito” of a vessel dating back some centuries.

I had managed to do a negative of this by pressing a piece of tracing paper and using a black pencil I rubbed the tracing paper to get the negative of the “graffito”. 

Somehow I got to know that the only person that can identify the vessel and the period in history was a certain Joseph Muscat of Rabat.

I managed to contact him and he was very eager to meet me at his house on that narrow street in Rabat. 

After a warm welcome preceded by a handshake, he led me to his “workshop” and as soon as I showed him the negative print that I managed to produce, he told me immediately “Oh that is the San Giovanni built between 1620 and 1625. There were 3 vessels with the same name during the period of the Knights”.

I was left speechless with the knowledge and the way he could identify the difference between the vessels used at the time and when these were built.

I spent nearly 2 hours at his house and the enthusiasm and love he had for the history was something I have never met before.

May God grant him eternal rest. He deserves it.