Towards the end of November 1896, when the island was agog with excitement and interest about the new electric light plant at Floriana, rumours that the monopoly enjoyed by Major Alessandro and Edward Mattei’s ‘Marsamuscetto Steam Ferry Service’ would be broken were confirmed when it was announced that three gentlemen, Gustav Gollcher, Eduardo Montebello Pulis and Raffaele Polidano, had proposed to start another ferry service with superior vessels. The penny fare was to include free access from Marsamuscetto Steps to street level by hydraulic lift.

Certificate of registry of the Ceres.

News that there would now be competition delighted the long suffering public; it had been Hobson’s Choice by all accounts, and staff of the Marsamuscetto Steam Ferry Service reportedly told complaining passengers to take the dgħajsas if they were not satisfied.

The contract was drawn up by Notary George Alfred Page on October 15, 1886. The three signatories agreed to set up the National Steam Ferry Boat Company (NSFBC) to carry passengers and goods between Marsamxett and Sliema and other designated points/landing places by means of steam launches. The company was set up for a period of 10 years; it had an issued capital of £4,000, half of which was subscribed by Gustav Gollcher and the rest in equal shares by Pulis and Polidano. Pulis was appointed administrator, Gollcher, treasurer, and Polidano, manager. Decisions were to be taken by a majority vote according to the ratio of shares: 2:1:1. In case of a tie, a perito (arbitrator) would be appointed to take the final decision.

The permit to erect a pontoon at Marsamxett

The shareholders agreed to increase the capital if necessary, but if any one of them opted to sell his shares, he would give the others the right of first refusal, for a price to be mutually decided, or in case of disagreement, to be valued by two periti appointed by each of the contesting parties. The value would be calculated on the day of sale. Pulis and Polidano were to appoint heirs to represent them in case they died before the 10-year period, or afterwards, if the company decided to extend operation.

Any shareholder unwilling to continue as a shareholder after the extension would be bought out by the others for price to be agreed by two periti. He would be paid in cash and would cede the rights to the launches and other assets. The parties agreed to abide by legislation and commercial practice as laid down by Clause V of Ordinance XIII of 1857.

On October 7, 1896, Raffaele Polidano petitioned to the Governor for permission to establish a steam ferry boat service between Marsamxett and Sliema, and to erect landing stages on sites marked on an annexed plan. Gerald Strickland, the Chief Secretary to Government, replied on the 26th; he stated that the Governor was prepared to accede to the request provided the shareholders demonstrated to his satisfaction that they were in a position to execute the undertaking, subject to a number of conditions, chief of which were the piers the company intended to build. These would have to be approved by the Collector of Customs, be accessible to the public, and be subject to removal at any time without the right to compensation. Permission was granted on November 25 after O.F. Gollcher & Sons stood in as guarantors.

Gustav Gollcher was the eldest son of Olof Fredrik Gollcher, who founded the firm of O.F. Gollcher & Sons. Olof had first called at Malta in December 1848 on his father’s brig Swalan. This was the second ship of the name, and there would be a third Swalan in 1851.

Rear view of the ‘National Steam Ferry Boat Company’ landing stage and Sliema Marine Police Station.

After landing in Malta on this ship in 1852, the 23-year-old gave up the sea and settled on the island. He married Vincenza Bruno, daughter of Judge Giacomo Pantaleone Bruno, on August 2, 1853. By the following year he went into the shipping business as a ship chandler, company agent (including his father’s ships) and supplier of bunker coal.

In 1867, he ventured into ship owning, initially registering ships under his wife’s or his chief clerk’s name; as a Swedish citizen, he could not own ships under the British registry. The ships ran services to Tunis, Sicily and Adriatic ports.

Olof either retained the name used by the previous owner, such as Lancefield, Lady Downshire, Bulldog, and Gleneagles or adopted traditional Maltese names, such as La Valette and L’Isle Adam. Olof looked after his employees. In October 1888, he awarded a life pension to the widow of a diver who drowned while working on the propeller of Lady Downshire.

Olof pioneered the steamship service to Gozo with Gleneagles in 1885. The ship also made the weekly mail run to Syracuse until 1895 when the mail contract was won by Adria, the Royal Hungarian Steam Navigation Co. That same year the Gleneagles ventured, albeit unsuccessfully, into the fishing business. The catches had been encouraging but repairs to fishing gear damaged by trawling on the seabed, made the venture uneconomic.

A year later the company decided to enter the Marsamxett ferry business. This would be the ma­instay of the company’s sea­borne business after the sale of Glen­eagles for service in Egypt in 1919.

The National Steam Ferry Boat Company led the way in quality and service

On November 27, Polidano, of 101, Strada Marsamuscetto, des­cribing himself as Collector of the Steam Ferry Boat Service, petitioned to Strickland to be allowed to erect a lift, of English manufacture, worked by hydraulic power, at a site marked in red ink on an annexed plan. Polidano asked permission to charge users one farthing or one halfpenny; he was ready to abide by whatever conditions were imposed by the government, from whom he asked assistance for the purpose of obtaining the consent of the Military Authorities for the lift.

The Matteis embarked on a similar initiative in 1897. Andre Zammit, in Our Architects (2009) recalls that his forbear, Francesco Azzopardi, was asked by Alessandro Mattei “to prepare plans and estimates (for a lift at Marsamxett) in February 1897”. Zammit adds: “I am reproducing the plan that I found though I am not sure that I fully understand it. This was several years before the Barrakka lift and it would certainly have made a lot of sense for Major Mattei, who was involved in the Valletta-Sliema ferry service (lanċa ġejja u oħra sejra), to have a lift in the Valletta end where there was a stiff climb to tackle.”

Wishful thinking – proposals for a lift at Marsamxett never materialised.

The problem of access to central Valletta from Marsamxett was daunting: a lift up to Marsamxett Road would only solve part of the problem as there remained another steep hill to conquer before one reached Strada Reale. There was also the lingering problem with the barklori who had not forgiven the Matteis. On August 21, 1897, a group of men attacked and grievously injured Alessandro Mattei while he was walking in Strada San Andrea near the Manderaggio. Mattei bore the brunt of all their grievances; their livelihood was now even more compromised by the emergence of a second ferry company.

The Daily Malta Chronicle of December 19, 1896, reported that: “Messrs Gollcher and Polidano left yesterday for Trieste to select and purchase steam launches in connection with the new service of ferry steamers which these gentlemen intend to establish between Valletta and Sliema.”

On January 11, 1897, Strickland asked Poli­dano for plans of the proposed landing stage at Sa Maison and in the vicinity of Fort Manoel Bridge. A similar request followed on February 3 in connection with the landing places at St Julian’s and St George’s Bay.

On January 14, Polidano asked the government to repair the urinal under the bastion at Marsamxett and the iron railing on the passage behind the ‘Caffe Amici’ which led to the company’s new landing place. Strickland replied on March 30: he said that both the urinal and the iron railing were to be repaired by the company as a condition of the permit.

The National Ferry Boat Company was promulgated in issue No. 3,939 of the Malta Government Gazette of August 20, 1897. Nothing seems to have resulted from the trip to Trieste; instead Gustav Gollcher bought four ferries from local shipbuilders, two from Lorenzo Gatt of Vittoriosa and two from Peter Camilleri of Senglea. Gatt launched Aurora on May 29, 1896; it was registered on July 23, 1897. Daphne followed later; it was registered on January 21, 1898. Camilleri delivered Bellona and Ceres; these two were registered on the same day: July 23, 1897.

Gollchers chose classical names, in alphabetical order, for the ferries: Aurora – from the Latin for ‘dawn’, the Roman goddess of sunrise, whose tears turned into morning dew. An amateur drama company founded (it was the first) at St Julian’s in 1866, was also called ‘Aurora’.

Scale drawing of a typical ferry. Courtesy of Victor Wickman

The Caffe Amici at Marsamxett.

Next came Bellona – the Roman goddess of war, represented with military helmet and sword, shield or spear, and who rode a quadriga, a chariot driven by four horses. It was followed by Ceres – (Greek Demeter), the goddess of agriculture, and the name of a dwarf planet of the solar system. The final unit of the quartet was Daphne – the daughter of the river gods Peneus or Creusa or Ladon, a Naiad nymph associated with fountains, wells, springs and other freshwater bodies.

Gustav Gollcher was the registered owner of all the 64 shares in each boat. The division of ownership of vessels into 64 shares goes back to medieval times; various explanations have been offered for the system, from the number of ribs on a boat, to the ratio of taxation – two-thirds to a third rounded off to 64/36 to avoid fractions, to a minority stake by governments to facilitate requisition in wartime. However, the most likely explanation came from Italy where goods were always divided into 24 or 64 shares to give financial backers the ability to own shares in even numbers. The system was introduced in Britain in 1823 and incorporated in the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854. Shares were listed in words and figures on registration certificates.

On August 28, 1897, Gustav sold Ceres and Bellona to Eduardo Montebello Pulis, administrator of the National Steam Ferry Boat Company, of 21, Strada Zaccaria, Valletta. Pulis paid £3,300 as per contract drawn by notary Francesco Schembri Zarb. All four boats were transferred to the company on September 7, 1897.

The ferries were powered by twin 45 i.h.p./14 n.h.p. compound surface condensing steam engines built by Shanks & Sons Ltd, Arbroath & London. There was a single coal-fired steel boiler. At 18.52 gross tons the Camilleri-built ships were slightly larger than Gatt’s 17.40 tons. All four were carvel built of wood, and with a single deck and bulkhead. They had no masts or forecastle and the stern was elliptical. The engine room was 19 feet long or about a third of the vessel’s 53 foot length.

Separate landing places were allocated as there were now two competing enterprises. On April 15, The Daily Malta Chronicle reported: “The construction of the landing place for the new line of steamboats to run between Valletta and Sliema has been taken in hand at Marsamuscetto. It is expected that the inauguration of the new improved service will take place, in June next, in all probability on the day of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.”

All four landing stages were of elegant, standard design

On July 9, The Malta Times reported: “We understand that a start will be made on the 15th instant of the first batch of three launches to ply regularly between Marsamuscetto Steps and Sliema by the new National Steam Ferry Boat Company. The manager of this new company of launches is a gentleman of no little experience in this line. Therefore, no doubt, the public will be served to their entire satisfaction. We wish the company every success.”

Advert of the firm O.F. Gollcher.

At Sliema, the NSFBC was allocated the landing place next to the Marine Police Station, opposite Tower Road. The MSFS landing place faced Annunciation Street. At Marsamxett, the company retained the original landing place near the Marine Police Station; the landing place of the NSFBC was a stone’s throw away in the direction of the harbour mouth and Valletta Sewage Pumping Station (Il-Fossa). All four landing stages were of elegant, standard design; the covered piers provided shelter from all weathers and arrivals and departures were separated by a central railing.

Ferries moored to a floating pontoon anchored to the fixed pier; the pontoon permitted berthing at all states of tide and swell. Each landing stage bore the company name on the pediment: Marsamxett Steam Ferry Service 1882, and National Steam Ferry Boat Company 1897. The NSFBC subsequently dredged the area adjoining its stage at Sliema to enable them to moor a second boat.

The new company began operations with three ferries on Sunday, August 1, 1897. Single fare was 1d. (one penny), return fare cost 1½d. (one and a half pence). A year’s subscription cost £1. 5s. (one pound, five shillings). These fares were easily affordable to members of the upper crust. Consider the following list of “ladies and gentlemen who have left town for their Sliema residences” days before the new company started operation: “Judge and Mrs Ganado, Mr, Mrs and Miss Portelli, Lieutenant and Mrs Denaro, Mr, Mrs and the Misses Laferla, Hon. and Mrs F. Vella, Hon. A. Naudi, Magistrate, Mrs and the Misses Frendo Azzopardi, Dr, Mrs and Miss Amato, Mr and Mrs H. Ciantar and the Hon. R. Micallef.”

That the NSFBC led the way in quality and service was demonstrated in “Correspondence: The New Launch Company” in The Daily Malta Chronicle of August 4, 1897: “Sir, the recent addition to our steam ferry service of a new company is a circumstance which cannot be expected to pass without its share of comment and opinion.

“Hearing that a start was to have been made on Sunday last, I availed the afternoon for a trip from Marsamuscetto to Sliema. The launches are all that could be desired. The cabin is a capital idea (it was the Gollchers who introduced the saloon) and will be especially appreciated by the ladies in the protection afforded them from the summer’s sun, the winter’s rain and the perpetual tobacco.

“The staff, although evidently new to the situation, is very civil and obliging. Buoys should in my opinion mark the course of the boats, to be distinguished by flags or lamps, as most easily discernible; thus, accidents could be averted, or at least reduced to the minimum of possibility. Altogether, I must say that my impressions of the enterprise are very favourable, and I have no hesitation in asserting that the same opinion is shared by the general public.”

The first parts of this article were published on March 10 and 17. Part 4 will be published next Sunday.

Letterhead of ‘The Marsamuscetto Steam Ferry Service’ company.