These most patriotic of words written by a scientist and priest from Zebbug suggest a fire and a zeal for a young nation. Words written in silence, under flickering candle light. In these letters written in iron ball ink, hidden words were also penned in invisible ink undetectable to the naked eye. It was a way to protect the sender who was committing high treason for the greater good of nascent nation. The prophetic words of impending death were a foretelling of what was to be the bullet-ridden corpse of Dun Mikiel Xerri. His country, a rock at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, had been at the heart of the machinations of a Mediterranean French Republican Empire. Xerri decided to stand up to that plan. He was not faint-hearted, and stood for a Malta free from tyranny, determined to choose her own destiny, even if it were to lead to his death. He was not the first to do so and surely not the last. So, it came to pass that one of Malta’s first patriots penned his letters during the darkest of hours for the young nation, his most important words were written in between, only to be read by those who truly wanted to join in a journey of nationhood.

The Malta Maritime Museum, just like the reader of Dun Mikiel Xerri’s letter, has endeavoured to read in between the lines. Just like those letters of 1799, the most important words are found in between the lines. This is the narrative that has been spearheaded at the museum since 1992 attempting to peel away myths, misconceptions and perceptions. Striving to search for a maritime identity, lost in the greater narratives of the Malta story. The founding curator of the museum and managed to grapple with the insurmountable task of building a collection from scratch. His successors consolidated this narrative by expanding the collection and establishing a narrative of a truly modern museum concept. The collection, by then numbering in its thousands, was therefore making it easier to establish themes and perspectives of a young nation finding its collective identity.