Gun salute for MS Prinsendam
A gun salute was today fired from the Saluting Battery in Valletta on the occasion of the departure of the cruise ship MS Prinsendam at 4.30pm. The ship was in Malta on a scheduled visit.
The MS Prinsendam was launched by the Cunard line as the Royal Viking Sun in 1988. It changed its name twice since then as the Seabourne Sun in 1999 and to its present one in 2002. At present it is operated by the Holland-America Line and is registered at Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It was built by the Wärtsilä in Turku, Finland. This ship has a tonnage of 37,848 GT and is 674.2 ft (205.5 m) long with a beam of 91.8 ft (28.0 m) and a draught of 23.6 ft (7.2 m). It has 9 passenger decks and can carry 793 passengers and 443 crew. This vessel is capable of achieving a maximum speed of 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) and a service speed of 18.5 knots (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph). This vessel is represented in Malta by Mifsud Brothers Limited. |
Start-up guns for Rolex Middle Sea Race
Once again, FWA has been tasked by the Royal Malta Yacht Club to fire the start-up guns for this year's edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Yacht Race. The Rolex Middle Sea Race got off to a spectacular start in Grand Harbour this morning (Sat 20th), despite a strong head wind which complicated matters for the 83 participating boats.
The boats were classified in five starts according to their class, with the largest yachts - the maxi boats - leaving last. Their run out of the harbour saw many of the boats cluster together to get the best of the conditions, narrowly avoiding collision. The Middle Sea Race, which takes participants all round Sicily and back to Malta, is the last major race of the year in the Mediterranean. A full-gun salute was later fired to greet the cruiseliner M.V. Saga Sapphire. |
Saluting Battery welcomes 5 + 5 Dialogue Delegates
On October 5th, the Saluting Battery was visited by no less than ten heads of states representing five Southern-European and five North African states who share common inter-regional interests. They were in Malta to attend the 5+5 Western Mediterranean Forum. On their approach to the site, they were greeted with a full-gun salute from the battery's 32-pdr SBBL guns which was followed by a short coffee break and the taking of the summit's traditional 'family photo'. The delegation was hosted by the Prime Minister of Malta Dr Lawrence Gonzi.
The Western Mediterranean Forum, commonly referred to as 5 + 5 Dialogue, was officially launched in Rome in 1990 as an informal sub-regional forum of like-minded countries, geographically situated on the western rim of the Euro-Mediterranean littoral and comprising of Algeria, France, Italy, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia. Malta became a member in 1991. As a trans-Mediterranean security initiative, the rationale of the 5+5 Dialogue is to secure closer cooperation between the five EU member states and the five Arab Maghreb countries through political dialogue and economic cooperation and by encouraging more efficient management of resources as a means of enhancing regional interdependence and development. Following the resilient re-launching of the Forum in Portugal in 2001, the 5+5 (Foreign Ministers’) Dialogue has been convening regularly and engendering activities geared towards more concrete and tangible cooperation amongst the partner countries, with the most notable activities being the Migration, the Defence and the Transport Initiatives. The Malta Summit was attended by the President of the Republic of France, François Hollande, the Prime Minister of Spain, Mariano Rahoy Brey; the Prime Minister of Italy, Mario Monti; the Prime Minister of Portugal, Pedro Passos Coelho; the President of Tunisia, Moncef Marzouki; the Prime Minister of Algeria, Abdel Mallek Sellal; the Prime Minister of Morocco, Abdelilah Benkiraneh; the President of the Islamic Republic of Maurtania, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and the President of the Libyan General National Congress, Mohamed Y. M. Elmagref. Also in attendance teher were a number of observers from the different European and Arab International Organizations which included the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barrosó. |
Visit to the Anderson-Morhead Memorial at the Saluting Battery
Ms Chris Bailey, direct descendant of Lt.Col. Henry Anderson-Morshead buried at the Saluting Battery in 1831 has paid a visit to the battery to pay respects and lay a flower on his grave. This unexpected visit took place on Saturday August 25th and she was accompanied by her husband of forty years, Mr Charles Bailey. Ms Bailey has got to know of her distant relation buried in Malta as a result of researching her family tree.
Henry Anderson MORSHEAD, was born about 1774, the son of Colonel Henry Anderson, of Fox Hall, Co. Limerick, Ireland. Entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and joined the Royal Artillery as Henry Anderson, commissioned age 17 years 8 months. Gentleman Cadet 29th May 1790. Promoted to 2nd Lieutenant 1st September 1793, he served with the R.A. on the Continent. At his request he moved to Royal Engineers as 2nd Lieutenant on 1st January 1794. He again served on the Continent, then back to Plymouth. Made a Lieutenant on the 19th November 1796, he was posted the following year to St.Domingo, West Indies. When the island was evacuated in 1798 he was attached to the Staff of Sir Thomas Maitland. From November 1798 till July 1807 he was employed at Gravesend, Portsmouth and Plymouth. Promotion to Captain was made on 1st March 1805, and in that year by royal license he added the surname of Morshead to his, so became Henry Anderson Morshead. Further promotions followed Lieut-Colonel 21st July 1813 and Colonel 29th July 1825. In 1829 he was appointed Commanding Royal Engineer in Malta. He was taken ill during the summer of 1831, and on 6th November he was struck with a fit of apoplexy, which left him incoherent. He had further seizures and died in Valletta 11th November 1831. His funeral took place on the 14th November, when he was buried in the Old Saluting Battery, below the Upper Barracca Gardens in Valletta. A large ornamental tomb was later placed over the grave, but with the passage of time all that is left now are the kerb-stones marking the grave site. Unfortunately what remains of his ornamental tomb is the base. FWA has plans to restore this sepulchral monument back to its original state when finances permit. |
Ms Bailey laying a flower inside the ruins of the Anderson-Morsehead memorial.
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Saluting Battery Fired Minute Guns for Dom Mintoff State Funeral
Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna has today kept with established historic ceremonial tradition, in firing funeral minute guns from the Saluting Battery, Upper Barracca, Valletta for the state funeral of former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff. The gun firing commenced the moment that the funerary cortege started exiting St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta at the end of the Funeral Service.
Traditionally, minute guns are fired every minute on the way to burial. The origins of this practice are lost in time but are standard practice the world over. Minute guns are only fired in the case of state or military funerals accorded to sovereigns, heads of state and high naval and military officers. The number of guns fired is dictated by the rank of the deceased when he was alive. Since its restoration by FWA in 2004, the Saluting Battery in Valletta has seen all of its original historic functions restored back to it including daily time-signals, the greeting of visiting VIPs and ships and the marking of important historic events and national holidays. Minute guns are now also fired on state funerals. The Saluting Battery was kindly restored with the financial backing of the Malta Tourism Authority, the Bank of Valletta plc. and the active support of the Environmental Landscaping Consortium. |
