An aerial photo of the statue of St Paul on Selmun Island, at the entrance of the wide and long bay named after the apostle of the gentiles, was carried on the back page last Monday. The caption, wrongly, stated that the said island could have been the site of the shipwreck. This is far from the truth. It is a mistake that keeps being repeated ad nauseam.

From the description given in The Acts of the Apostles, as written by the evangelist St Luke, who was also on the ship, there is only one place where the shipwreck could have occurred. The international scholar, Fr Guido Schembri OFM, had declared that the site was within the L-Għażżenin inlet, which statement I am in full agreement. A few metres further in there used to be a sandy bay until it was obliterated by building rubble. This took place within living memory.

After the shipwreck, the survivors would not have had any chance of survival in a strong gregale to reach a safe coast except where the Wignacourt watch tower now stands. In fact, the shipwreck chapel used to stand on the site of the tower but was moved by the Grand Master to its present location.

There are many misconceptions, for example the wrongly-claimed Roman anchor of an Egyptian ship from the port of Alexandria. I have been beseeching and imploring the Ecclesiastical authorities to rectify all misconceptions and mistakes but, for some strange and perverse reason, they are reluctant to clarify these important points from one of the major events in the history of our islands.