A sailor who gathers no moss

Do you know where Moss in Norway is? Probably not, but the same can be said of people in Moss when asked about Malta.

A native of Moss who does know where the tiny Mediterranean island lies is Arne Johansen.

Mr Johansen, whose paternal grandfather, Ricard, was a diver on the salvage ship Salvator in the Mediterranean, has been visiting the island regularly for the past five years.

"I remember my grandfather mentioning Malta quite often. He used to work on clippers and longed to work in America but he ended up in the Mediterranean between 1920 and 1930.

"In those days sailors built small ships in bottles to keep in their cabins. My grandfather was one such sailor."

Mr Johansen started working at the age of 14 in a shipyard where tankers were made to carry liquid petroleum.

During his sojourns here, his great love for ships took him practically every day to the Maritime Museum, in Vittoriosa, where he was fascinated by the intricate ship models exhibited there.

This is where he met Joe Abela, master ship model builder and restorer at the museum.

Mr Johansen, an old hand at sea - he sails along the Norwegian coast for about two months at a stretch every summer - and owns a 1953 Norwegian rescue boat, decided to commission Mr Abela to make him a miniature copy of the boat he owns. The 1:15 scale model is about 76cm long.

Mr Johansen plans to donate the model to the Rescue Boat Museum which forms part of the Norwegian Navy Museum, in Moss.

The boat, the RS 57, which was designed by G. Furuholmen, a well-known designer in Norway, is 11.6 metres long, 3.75 metres wide and has a 1.5 metres draught. It was powered by 95 hp Albin diesel engine.

There are 50 lifeboat stations along the Norwegian coast and the boats go out mostly to assist fishermen in distress.

It took Mr Abela two-and-a-half months to make the model, waking up in the wee hours of the morning and forgetting about weekends.

"This was a new experience for me because I have never made a model for a Norwegian client.

"I used oak and red deal as well as brass for the various fittings.

"No, it was not difficult to make the model but it was a new outlook as far as the proportions, the shape of the hull and the superstructure go.

"The boat was built in the same year I was born," Mr Abela said smiling, evidently relishing this "historical" coincidence.

The donation to the Rescue Boat Museum will make Malta slightly better known in Moss because the plaque accompanying the model mentions Mr Abela and the Malta Maritime Museum.

On his part, Mr Johansen is forever talking about Malta to his friends and neighbours.

"I spend the winter here rambling with Norwegian friends who live in Mellieha. And I swim practically every day. I'm used to working outside at the shipyard with the temperature plunging to -20°C."

Some of Mr Johansen's friends winter in Spain but he does not find that country much to his liking. "I spent six weeks in Mallorca some winters ago but I could not get by, because of the language barrier and it was pointless going to the theatre as I don't understand Spanish.

"In Malta, everybody speaks English and the buses take you everywhere," he said with a caustic aside directed at the old buses that tend to stretch one's physical and mental endurance to the limit.

Next winter Mr Johansen is planning to return with a gift for the Maritime Museum - a ship in a bottle made by his grandfather.