In this second in a series of articles, Michael Cassar provides concluding extracts from his recently published book Connecting The Harbour Towns O. F. Gollcher & Sons 1897-1959.
The service of the Grand Harbour Steam Ferry Company (GHSFC), the second marine transport venture by Gustav Gollcher, Eduardo Montebello Pulis and Raffaele Polidano, started on October 15, 1906, without incident because the agitation expected from the barklori (boatmen) did not happen; there was need for a faster, more reliable connection for the people of the harbour conurbation and the thousands who worked at the dockyard. Nevertheless, the scene at the Marina must have been heart-rending and tense for the idle, gawking barklori, who, being no pushovers at the best of times, must have seethed in anger and impotence while they watched their livelihood being ‘stolen’, literally, from under their noses.
The Malta Herald of the following day captured the spirit of the moment: “The Steam Ferry Boat Service between Valletta and the Three Cities and vice-versa is now an accomplished fact, the inauguration having taken place yesterday in a quiet form. Fearing some demonstration on the part of the boatmen of...
