It was probably by coincidence but the progression of photography after the 1840s coincided with the slow defeat of sail in ships, brought about by the new steam propulsion.

Up to the Napoleonic era, cargo and warships relied exclusively on brawn and wind power to move across waters – oars and sails. Until steam engines changed all that.

Berthing space for smaller sailing craft, opposite Ta’ Liesse church, in Victorian times

Schooners berthed in Grand Harbour, c.1900

Slowly but inexorably, the Victorian age witnessed the triumph of steam power and sailing survived mostly as a leisure and sporting pastime rather than as essential to commerce and war, as it had for centuries.

Sailing vessels in Grand Harbour in the 1890s

A leisure sailing boat Malta, late 19th century

Bird’s-eye view of a pleasure boat, Malta, c.1930

This feature records sailing vessels in or around Malta through a sequence of antique images. Boats were mostly photographed in the harbours, at their least photogenic, with their sails stowed.

Dgħajsa tal-Latini, from the postcard set of Edward Alfred Gouder, early 1920

My selection includes the last remnants of powerful British hybrid warships, on which steam engines coexisted with majestic sail rigging, marine training ships for young seamen and the native luzzu and dgħajjes tal-latini (with lateen sails) for transport of passengers and light cargoes between the islands and fishing.

HMS Cruizer, a hybrid steam and sail British warship in Malta, late 19th century

Sadly, almost none of the latter have survived.

HMS Caledonia, a sail and steam British warship in Malta, 1890s

A Gozo dgħajsa tal-latini, Salvatore Lorenzo Cassar postcard, 1920s

Another Salvatore Lorenzo Cassar postcard of sailing vessels in Malta, early 1930s

Maltese commercial photographers found these native boats fascinating and marketed many images as postcards, particularly Salvatore Lorenzo Cassar, but even more intensely Edward Alfred Gouder (1870-1942), whose inexhaustible 1920s series of Gozo boats must rank as one of the aesthetic tours de force in the history of Maltese photography. I included many of them in my book Nostalgias of Gozo.

One of the earliest photographs of Grand Harbour, probably late 1860s, showing only British sailing warships

I have deliberately omitted the work of the German Geo Fürst, the lyrical poet of Maltese imagery in the inter-war years. He made sea craft with sails unfurled central to his paintings and camera artistry.

Grand Harbour in the 1930s. Giovanni Bonello donation to the Maritime Museum

The Royal Yugoslav marine training ship Jadran was a frequent pre-war visitor to Malta. Here in the 1930s. Giovanni Bonello donation to the Maritime Museum

I may, in the future, dedicate a spread exclusively to his unbearably beautiful photos.

All images from the author’s collections

The Italian naval training ship Amerigo Vespucci was a frequent visitor to Malta. Here seen in February 1935