The sailmakers had to provide their own needles, just like the blockmakers had to bring their own tools. All these craftsmen ran their own shops at the shipyard and referred to the commissioner of general stores or the provveditore di terra to get materials. They could choose to be paid a fixed salary or by the rate of work done. For instance, a blacksmith could either get a 15 scudi monthly salary or a tariff rate of 8 scudi (old Maltese currency €0.24 = 1 scudo) for every hundredweight (79.378 kg) of goods made.

All craftsmen had to teach apprentice slaves and apprentice boys, for which they received allowances. Each master craftsman knew what the congregazione expected in terms of the type, quantity, and quality of goods since these were specified in their contracts and regulations. For example, the master sailmaker and his twenty-eight colleagues were also responsible for maintaining rudders’ pintles (aguglie – a pin or bolt on which a rudder turns), while the cooper (a person who makes and repairs wooden barrels) made and mended iron rings, masts, barrels, buckets of tar, scuttled casks for drinking water, and more.

The craftsmen at the shipyard also knew how much money they would earn. In 1719, five sail-makers earned 5 scudi a month each; twenty-one earned 3 scudi 9 tari, and three others earned 1 scudo 3 tari each.

When the British arrived in 1800, rope-makers, carpenters, and sailmakers offered their skills to the naval establishment on the island, later finding employment in the new drydocks.

Shipbuilding and trade in the 19^th Century

In the 19th century, Maltese shipbuilding was at its height, with ships travelling as far as Southern Ukraine and the Black Sea to bring back materials like grain. This continued until the First World War. Shipyard owners and merchants were very important because they controlled the price of bread, which was the main food for most people. The quality of bread showed how well the people were doing.

During the 1870s, ships brought cotton and rice from places like Bombay, Calcutta, and Burma, and coal on its way to the east. Trade from China, Singapore, and Australia also came to the Mediterranean, making Malta, along with Port Said, Suez, and Aden, a major trade centre and coaling station. More steamships and their passengers visited Malta, and imports and exports increased. The population grew, especially in the harbour area, as more people found jobs as porters, carriers, coal heavers, warehouse keepers, boatmen and ship chandlers (people who deal in supplies and equipment for boats). Shopkeepers, lace makers, filigree workers, and carriage men, also flocked to the harbour area to find work.

Despite these changes, local shipbuilding did not produce many ships for Malta’s own use. Malta relied more on transit trade and coaling, neglecting its own commercial and industrial development. In the late 1870s, the Chamber of Commerce was worried about this. They admitted that Malta had prospered since the opening of the Suez Canal but had become dependent on foreign steam companies. They feared that if Malta lost its status as a service provider, there would be nothing else to support its economy. They also noticed that more passengers were stopping at Italian ports instead of Malta.

As steamships replaced steamboats, the demand for sails decreased, although steamships still had some sails. Smaller boats, like the Dgħajsa tal-Latini that crossed the Gozo channel and fishing boats like the Luzzu, Frejgatina, and Kajjik, still used sails until motor engines were introduced in the 1920s.

Today, a few local companies continue to make sails for yachts. One of these companies was started over 30 years ago by Anton Cachia and experienced Maltese sailmaker Eddie Zarb Cousin. Now, Anton and his son John run the company, providing personalised sail-building and repair services to local and international clients. They specialize in designing and repairing cruising and racing sails, biminis (an open-front canvas top for the cockpit of a boat, usually supported by a metal frame), (sea) spray hoods, boom covers (a boom is a horizontal pole extending from the mast’s bottom), and sun sails.

Types of Sails

The oldest sail known is the square sail (Vela Kwadra), called ‘Qala’ Kwadru’ in Maltese. In the beginning, ships had one mast and one sail. Only towards the end of the Middle Ages did two- and three-masted ships start appearing. By the end of the 15th century, topsails (Gabja) were added, and by the mid-16th century, ships in the Mediterranean had three masts with six sails.

In the 16^th and 17^th centuries, the great galleons of the Order, such as the San Giovanni Bona Ventura, were equipped with ‘three square sails on the main mast, two at the front of the ship, a lateen and a topsail at the mizzen (another mast behind the main mast), a lateen at the bonaventure (an extra mizzen-sail, lateen in shape, which used to be carried on a fourth mast, known as a bonaventure mizzen), a sprit (a small pole/spar reaching diagonally from a mast to the upper outer corner of a sail), and an upper sprit at the jib (see below)’ (Muscat, 2005: 7).

The brigantine was a popular Maltese merchant ship until around 1800. It had three masts with large triangular sails called lateens and a small triangular sail called a jib set forward of the mast and attached to it with wire or rope, to help steer the boat in strong wind conditions when the main sails were more difficult to handle. The brigantine also had a waterproof fabric awning for shade, made of four or five pieces of cloth known as a kabuki. It was powered by both sails and oars and had a fighting platform added to the front in the 18th century for when the boat was used in corsairing (piracy).

The speronara, another type of boat used by merchants and corsairs, developed from the brigantine around the 16th century. It originally had just one mast. In the 19th century, some bigger speronaras had two or three masts. The early speronaras had one mast with a triangular lateen sail and a smaller front sail (jib). In the 17th century, a new kind of sail called the spritsail (tarkija in Maltese) was added and commonly used on single-masted speronaras.

Id-Dgħajsa tal-Latini was a large boat that carried passengers and goods between Malta and Gozo and also to Sicily until the 1960s. It had two masts with lateen sails. Many of these types of boats were built by craftsmen from Cottonera.  The Caruana family from Kalkara were known as one of the best Gozo boatbuilders.

In the 17th century, larger ships added the topgallant sail (Pappafik). In the 19th century, the clipper ship became popular, with up to 26 different types of sails. Overall, Maltese sailmakers knew how to sew 42 different kinds of sails.

In the early 20th century, the gaff sail (Qala’ Forenaff tal-Gaff) was widely used in yachting. This sail developed into the gaffless boom sail (Qala’ tal-Blum), better known as the Bermuda sail (Qala’ Bermuda).

For a full list of different types of sails and their Maltese names, check out Charles Briffa’s excellent paper, ‘White Dipping Sails.’

Written with reference to:

• ‘White Dipping Sails’ by Charles Briffa, Journal of Maltese Studies, 19-20, 62-70, 1990.
• ‘The Impact of Technology on Economic, Political and Social Spheres: the transition from sail to steam in 19th century Malta’ by S. Gatt, Junior College multi-disciplinary conference : research, practice and collaboration : Breaking Barriers : annual conference 2018, Malta. 353-362.
• ‘Galley Construction in Malta’ by Joseph Muscat. In La navigation du savoir : reseau des arsenaux historiques de la Mediterranee = Al-ibhar fi al-ma’rifah / directeur de publication, Salvatore Giannino ; edition, Sylvie Claval … [et al.] ; traductions, Noe Sardet ; photographies, Philippe Bettini … [et al.]. (pp. 82-87). UNESCO, 2006.
• ‘The Galleon of the Order’ by Joseph Muscat, Pubblikazzjonijiet Indipendenza, 2005.
• ‘The Lateen-Rigged Maltese Brigantine’ by Joseph Muscat, Pubblikazzjonijiet Indipendenza, 2001
•  ‘The Establishment and Organization of the Order of St John’s Sailing Ship-of-the-line Squadron 1701-1741’ by A. Quintano, Master’s dissertation, University of Malta, 1995.
• ‘Stitching up the Knights’ Sail Makers Hall’ published online by Times of Malta.
• Accessed in July 2024: https://timesofmalta.com/article/Stitching-up-the-Knights-sail-makers-hall.363018
• ‘French Curtain at Vittoriosa’ published online by Times of Malta.
• Accessed in July 2024: https://timesofmalta.com/article/French-curtain-at-Vittoriosa.557890