Pigeon pie, kawlata with pig trotters and some of the finest wines were on the menu for corsairs quarantined on Manoel Island after returning with a haul of Ottoman ships 300 years ago.

And the very same fare will be served up at the Maritime Museum on Friday in dishes created from a shopping bill dated 1794 discovered at the Notarial Archives in Valletta

Friday’s dinner, which has been sold out, is the result of years of research at the Notarial Archives.

Through Heritage Malta, Maritime Museum curator Liam Gauci has been researching maritime history, leafing through thousands of pages in 200 documents focusing on the years between 1750 and 1798, the last years of the knights’ rule.

The documents are mainly logbooks that the ship’s secretary had to update when on a mission to capture Ottoman ships, licensed by the Grandmaster, and sponsored by an investor.

Unlike pirates, who were hung if caught, corsairs were highly respected and filed a percentage of their gains as a form of tax return with the Grand Master. They also had to pay tax to the cloister nuns of Saint Ursula who would pray for the crew to return back home safely.