An old shaft and gearwheels believed to be the oldest surviving machinery in Malta have been unearthed by chance at the former British Naval Bakery in Vittoriosa, which now houses the Malta Maritime Museum.
Heritage Malta said its staff were carrying out a survey of the site when a feature was discovered in the ground that led museum curators to believe there was a trench that had been filled in.
The construction works that were under way were stopped and excavation carried out, resulting in the discovery of a trench leading to underground tunnels that were previously unknown to Heritage Malta.
At the bottom of the trench a shaft and its gearwheels were found buried under layers of rocks and gravel. Heritage Malta believes they were buried to make way for upgrades undertaken at the Naval Bakery in the 1930s.
The parts date back to the 1840s when the Royal Navy Victualing Yard was built and Heritage Malta believes they belong to the first machines to be used on the island - which would make them the oldest remaining machinery in Malta.
Many believed that all the machinery from the bakery was destroyed or sold for scrap metal in later years but it turns out that the gearwheels and shaft were too bulky to dismantle and remove and were therefore buried and forgotten for years.
It is envisaged that these new finds will be incorporated in the permanent display of the museum.
The Maritime Museum charts Malta's maritime history within a Mediterranean context and also illustrates the global nature of seafaring and its impact on society.
The building, designed by British architect William Scamp, was erected between 1842 and 1845 on the site of the old covered slipway of the Knights of St John.
The bakery was the hub of the Victualing Yard and supplied the Royal Navy with its daily requirements of bread and biscuits.
After World War II it was converted into offices and stores and as the headquarters of the Admiralty Constabulary. The building remained part of the naval establishment up to the closure of the British base in 1979.