With traditional boatbuilding and restoration almost extinct in Malta, the Maritime Museum is making sure one of the island’s last vestiges of this skill is well documented.

This rare find is not a frejgatina or a luzzu. It is Karmenu Carabott, a carpenter by profession, the museum’s boat restorer and shipwright, of whom curator Liam Gauci believes there are less than a handful.

Mr Carabott, a part-time fisherman from Marsaxlokk, is spending his last few years before retirement working on some of Heritage Malta’s 82 traditional boats.

It seems unlikely that he will be able to pass on his skill as no one has yet expressed any interest, so in collaboration with the University of Malta, students reading a Masters in Underwater Archaeology are being hosted at Mr Carabott’s workshop at the Maritime Museum to watch him at work.

“Mr Carabott has the unique talent of drawing and designing a boat from scratch, while also examining a boat and understanding what needs to be fixed or restored. It took Heritage Malta more than a decade to find someone like him, and the agency’s CEO Noel Zammit was instrumental in securing Mr Carabott as a resident shipwright.

“Students from seven different countries will now come by and watch him in action, restoring a worldwide unique example of a dgħajsa tal-pass tad-dockyard, dating back at least to the 1890s.”

They will then reconstruct the boat digitally in 3D, ensuring that the vessel, which is being restored physically, is preserved forever.

Mr Gauci noted that in this manner, Heritage Malta is providing a future to such dying endemic skills, and hopefully, also entice some students to learn the manual skill from Mr Carabott.

Museum curator Liam Gauci.Museum curator Liam Gauci.

This would prove useful to the museum itself as it has the biggest collection of traditional Maltese boats, dating back around 150 years, and which are in need of restoration.

Most of these vessels landed at Heritage Malta through donations, however, the national agency also salvages boats, including one that was recovered from a war shelter.

The dgħajsa tal-pass that Mr Carabott is currently restoring was salvaged from St Julian’s. The 55-year-old believes it will take some six months to restore the vessel, with the work including replacing some of the ‘rib cage’ of the boat.

He is documenting the process, listing also the materials used, in this case mahogany, ash and white deal wood.

He explains that wood is rather challenging to maintain and would just “crumble away” if not looked after. Many were in fact opting to replace it with fibre, despite knowing that wood made a boat sturdier in water.

Asked when he first started showing interest in boat making and restoration, he recalled how his uncle Ġanni Desira, from whom he inherited the carpentry skill, had bought a kajjik that was already split in half and was going to end up as oven wood. When it was eventually restored, the boat looked brand new.

Later on when he was aged 17, Mr Carabott was encouraged by his dockyard boss Harry Spiteri to build a frejgatina from scratch. Thirty years on, the boat is still a prized possession and he will not part with it.

Along the years, he helped restore other vessels, including a seven-foot toy boat known at the Maritime Museum as Taċ-Ċisk.

Karmenu Carabott is restoring the last remaining dgħajsa tal-pass tad-dockyard. The boat, dating back at least to the 1890s, is as rare as his skill, which is being documented digitally in 3D at the Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa.Karmenu Carabott is restoring the last remaining dgħajsa tal-pass tad-dockyard. The boat, dating back at least to the 1890s, is as rare as his skill, which is being documented digitally in 3D at the Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa.

Boat restoration scheme

The government has launched a boat restoration scheme aimed at helping the cultural preservation of the local fishing fleet.

This applies to registered wooden fishing vessels constructed before 2007 and are either a firilla, frejgatina, kajjik or luzzu.

Apart from financial and sectorial aspects, these vessels also have a cultural and historical value and should therefore be preserved. 

The Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture can be contacted on 2292 6800.

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