Petards in Malta

                         Petards Went Up;

              Fireworks Barge Went Down

                                            By Mr. S.

 

                        The Barge Before (All photos by Richard Weninger)

       

After a rather quiet Sunday afternoon, I was startled—as usual--by loud petard bombs going off rather early in the evening.

As this past weekend was the Feast of St. Gregory in Sliema, I assumed that this noise was a continuation of Saturday evening’s spectacular fireworks display from the barge anchored in Ballutta Bay.

These deafening (and controversial) blasts usually signal that something is going on at the Feast, like the procession with the statue of the saint leaving the church--or that the fireworks display is about to start .But then there was a series of house-rocking explosions followed by – dead quiet .And that evening there were no more fireworks.

The next morning I learned that the barge had exploded--or at least a whole bunch of petards had been set of from the barge by remote control. Thankfully, nobody was injured. But not knowing that there wasn’t anyone on the smoking barge after the explosions, a tourist jumped into the water to rescue the survivors. It took the police 45 minutes to find him in the increasing darkness over Ballutta Bay, and rescue him from his own bravery. (He was an American, of course.)

The story could end here, but, of course, there’s Murphy’s Law. And more did go wrong .Because of ongoing investigations, the barge had not been removed from Ballutta Bay and on Tuesday morning the barge was found bottom-up, floating, looking rather like the infamous sinking Titanic.

                                  The Barge (left) on the way down

                                                      Gone

I was very amused watching the Maltese police, the Armed Forces of Malta and a bomb disposal unit standing by helplessly as the floating wreck sank. Well, maybe with a few less bubbles than the Titanic...but within a few minutes it was gone. Gone into the depths or more likely, the shallows of Ballutta Bay.

                                          Taking Care of Business?

 

Now that is the next problem. Ballutta Bay is not deep enough to scuttle a fireworks barge without endangering any boat bigger than a rowing boat! Or maybe this whole event was planned, and the sunken barge is to be used as an attraction for divers to discover a new barge reef. (And, of course, there will be a diving fee.)

So this was the most bombastic festa I’ve experienced on Malta so far, and explosive questions remain:

1. Did they remove the bombs (I mean petards) before the barge sunk?

2. When will the wreckage be raised (see next post)?

3. And who will be paying the bill?

As your local American-in-Malta blog correspondent, I will be there, waiting to tell you everything.

Comments

[Sennuwy (an ancient Egyptian name)]

Good for you, Willy! Things are very busy now in school--I've got 9
advanced students, but it will slow down in the winter. Wishing you lots of
luck!!! Ilene

On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 12:12 PM, wrote:

[Willy]

Hi Elene,

I knew you would love Malta, never a dull moment! How about teaching? I start my first class in two weeks. They started with 10 pupils, then tehere was a two week silence and last week they asked me "What's your limited amount of pupils?, we have 26 now..."
Two levels in one class, beginners and elementary. Wish me good luck!

Willy