Belated Malta History from the Bottom Up: Malta in the Middle

(This is part of a continuing series of posts on Malta's insanely dense and lengthy history, as told via the conceit of an archaeological excavation - from the bottom layer up. Previous posts can be found here: Part 1: Megaliths, Part 2: the Hypogeum and Catacombs, Part 3: Roman to Arab times, and Part 4: Knights of Malta)

Justin's computer is in its death throes, so we backed up all of our photos on my laptop. In the process, we became a bit disoriented (or disorientated, as they say in the UK, for some reason) and lost track of some of our pictures. We'll try to get various make-up posts done soon.

We last left Malta with the decline of the Knights of St. John. The Knights were forced out of Malta by Napoleon when he captured the island en route to Egypt in 1798-9. This out-forcing may have looked something like this:


Or not. Don't ask me; I wasn't there.

Subsequently, Malta became a naval base for the British, which it remained until it obtained independence in 1964. My personal Malta-related creepy-coincidence was its prominent role in the Lymond Chronicles book series. Justin's is the fact that the eldest son of Williamina Belsches, the woman he's researching for his dissertation, died at Malta in some military capacity (the death notice marks him as "Captain William Forbes" but we have yet to determine if it's navy or army. History is fun!)

English is consequently one of Malta's two official languages (the other is Maltese) and the cultural legacy of English rule is strong.

Malta is the only country to display another country's decoration on its national flag (image from Wikimedia Commons)

During the Second World War, Malta occupied a precarious but vital strategic position between Italy and German-occupied North Africa. Britain felt it had to retain Malta to have any operating strength in the Mediterranean, and also to prevent the morale catastrophe of losing another "fortress" island on top of the fall of Singapore. Clearly, it was equally important to the Axis that Malta break.

How bad were things on Malta during World War II?

Malta was raided over 3,000 times. And it wasn't tremendously well-defended, either: at one point in April at the height of the bombing, Malta had precisely one plane to fly against the Luftwaffe - which was better than another time in April, when it had none. (The word "gutsy" doesn't even begin to describe the pilot of that one plane). The Maltese controllers were reduced to telegraphing fake signals in the hopes that the Luftwaffe would listen in and think defenders were scrambling. Consequently, the German bombers generally got through, and "[f]rom 1 January to 24 July 1942 there was only one 24-hour period when no bombs fell on Malta." Some Maltese actually turned to the old Roman catacombs as air-raid shelters, which must have felt a bit ghoulish but was probably rather effective. Malta's Opera House, destroyed in April of 1942, remains a ruin to this day:


Here are some additional stats from Merlins Over Malta:

In a 24 hour period on 20-21st March 1942 295 tons of bombs fell on Ta’Qali airfield making it the most bombed allied airfield ever.

6,728 tons of bombs to fell on Malta in April, 36 times the amount to fall on Coventry. ...

In March and April 1942 more bombs were dropped on Malta than fell on London during the entire Blitz.

There were 154 days of continuous raids in comparison to London’s 57.

Tough cookies, those Maltese.

To acknowledge this tough-cookiehood and to boost morale, King George awarded the entire civilian population of the island with the George Cross, second only to the Victoria Cross in British honors. And the George Cross, a little silver plus-sign engraved with the words "For Gallantry," now appears in the upper-left-hand corner of the national flag of Malta.

Brief break for a Kleenex.

Okay, where were we?

Right. So. Little silver plus-signs are great for morale but unfortunately won't keep your civilian population clothed and fed or your air force in the air. Malta needed concrete help. That was Operation Pedestal, a massive relief fleet braving air bombing, ocean mines, and U-boats to get food and fuel to Malta. The critical ship in this convoy was the world's largest fuel tanker, called - did I mention the creepy coincidences already? - the S.S. Ohio. A great narrative can be found here, which I will seek to condense.

Heavily targeted by German and Italian bombers and suffering severe losses, the convoy struggled through to Malta. The Ohio was battered and bombed until, a mere forty-five miles from the harbor, she went dead in the water. Quick-thinking and courageous seamen physically tied her to two escorting destroyers. With the help of Maltese harbor tugs and the protection of shore batteries, the Ohio made it into the Grand Harbour - on, in another coincidence for the heavily-Catholic Malta, the feast day of St. Marija. Story has it that she was greeted by cheering crowds, which burst into a spontaneous chorus of Rule Britannia.

May I offer my own personal cheer for the ship that saved Malta?

OH!!!!!! IO!!!!!!!!!

Craigmillar Castle Pt. 1 - Take a Hike

Justin and I went out to Craigmillar Castle last weekend, thus proving that it's worth buying the multipass (in this case, a Historic Scotland membership) because then you'll be darned if you don't get your money's worth out of it. Justin told me we could walk out to the castle. It was close, he said. It'd be a nice day for a stroll, he said. It was one and a half hours, he didn't say.

Perhaps this is why he chose to dress in camouflage for the occasion:

In all fairness, the first forty-five minutes was a lovely, level walk around Arthur's Seat. Scotland may not be full of bright tropical colors, but there is a surprising diversity of earth tones. Count how many shades of green and brown you find in that picture. There's something quite beautiful about it, in a subtle and rugged way.

The path we followed used to be the old Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway, nicknamed the "Innocent Railway" because... well, depends on who you ask. The Gazetteer for Scotland says it's because of the railway's excellent safety record. The sign on site says it's because it still used horses (also an alternative explanation given by the Gazetteer). Yes, that's right, a horse-drawn train. I suppose the coal-shovelers had slightly different duties here.

The original function of the railway was to bring coal into Edinburgh for urban consumption, but passenger soon latched onto it as a good deal. With the horse-drawn pace, there was no need for formal stations. Passengers could choose to disembark anywhere along the route. The railway also offers a contender for the position of oldest railway tunnel in Britain, but not in the part we walked.

Some sections are still in use, adapted and incorporated into other railway lines, but the section on the way to Craigmillar was decommissioned in 1968 and turned into the present walking/bicycling path.

With, of course, the odd train (and the emphasis here is on "odd"):

Chooga chooga chooga chooga chooga chooga chooga chooga...

Choo-choooooo!


What do you mean, I'm not five years old anymore?

The Vernal Equinox

Today is the vernal equinox, which means that everywhere in the world will get roughly the same amount of daylight today.

Since the autumnal equinox back in September, every day in Edinburgh has been shorter than we're used to, having spent most of the last 25 years between 35 and 45 degrees north. In December, the days were really short--full dark by 4:30 most days. From now, however, every day will be longer than we're used to--not by much at first, but by June it won't actually ever get fully dark.

Just another reminder of how far north we are here in Scotland: if you drew a line across the globe straight West from here, it would pass through Labrador in Canada and through the very southern part of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.

EUSA Beer Festival: an Intro to Real Ale

Last week, the Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) hosted a charity beer festival. The festival featured a selection of cask-conditioned or "real" ales from a handful of Scottish breweries.

British-style real ale is probably a bit different from what you're used to. It's brewed with a limited set of natural ingredients, and no extra carbonation is added, so it is generally much flatter than the typical brew. It's also traditionally served at room temperature. If the idea of warm, flat beer doesn't sound appetizing, don't worry, it actually works--all the flavors, especially the bitterness from the hops, are rounded out a bit by serving it in such a way, and the result is subtler than most cold, bubbly beers.

If you're interested in learning more about real ale, the drink actually has a political advocacy group (only in the UK!), the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

Many of the beers on tap at the EUSA festival are also widely available in bottles in specialty shops or on tap in certain pubs, which is itself a testament to the quality of Scottish beer culture. At the festival, we focused on the stuff we'd never seen before, such as the Houston brewery's Tartan Terror, a malty dark ale, and Harviestoun's Haggis Hunter, which is super hoppy. (You'll notice we also have a soft spot for campy Scottish branding.) Here's Nana taking on the Tartan Terror.

I have to say, the beer was good, but there was nothing that could hold a candle to anything put out by my favorite Scottish brewery to date: Edinburgh's own Innis and Gunn, who age their beer in oak whiskey barrels, rum casks, and sherry casks.

You might recognize it as "That beer Justin and Nana brought home for Christmas."

On a related note: The EUSA Charity Beer Festival was sponsored by Teach First, the UK equivalent of Teach for America. Anyone else have trouble imagining an American beer festival sponsored by anyone having anything at all to do with education?

Just a reminder that, while UK alcohol laws are pretty similar to those in most of the US, UK drinking culture most decidedly is not.

Globalization

For all that McDonald's, along with Starbucks, is considered the stick against which all other aspirations to homogenize the planet can be measured, McDonald's does have its localized menu quirks. I get a big kick out of finding out what they are and giving them a try. I'm not the only one who does this - there are some other global McDonald's observers out there:

From Food Network Humor:

- Turkey's McTurco ("2 burger patties covered in cayenne pepper sauce, and vegetables, and served on a fried pita")
- Mexico's McMolletes (refried beans, cheese, and pico de gallo served on an English muffin)
- Hong Kong's Shogun Burger ("a pork patty with Teriyaki sauce and cabbage.")

Among many others.

In Korea, I tried the Bulgogi Burger, a nod to Bulgogi sauce, a local sweet/salty brown marinade. It was awful. Here in Britain, the adaptation incorporates one of the most popular local cuisines: Indian food. You have NO IDEA how strongly the British feel about Indian food. Curry is a national dish. The supermarket has half an aisle dedicated to bottled Korma sauces, canned Chana Masala, and bags of naan and pappadums. And McDonald's has, as a variant on the American Snack Wrap, the Chicken Tikka Snack Wrap.



Verdict: Not bad. Tangy and actually quite spicy. But you could safely say that no actual Indian seasonings were harmed in the making of this Snack Wrap. In the U.S., you could sell the exact same flavor and title it "Zesty Southwestern Ranch," and people would go for it. In fact, now that I've looked at the U.S. menu, I'm starting to wonder if "Chipotle BBQ" might not be the exact same sauce....