H.M.S. St. Angelo - last British stronghold

Abstract

"It is only upon God and our own swords that we rely ... We shall not fail", once said that great Grandmaster, La Valette. It was La Valette who strengthened the ancient fort of St. Angelo - the last British stronghold in Malta - and then constructed a battery below to command the entrance of the harbour. Fort St. Angelo, built by the Arabs still stands proudly on the extremity of Vittoriosa. According to Naval tradition, St. Angelo or, as it became known, H.M.S. St. Angelo was officially classed as a "battleship". Each floor is in fact a deck, each room a cabin. Of interest is the fact that the enemy claimed a hundred times during World War Two to have "sunk" this capital ship. Many perhaps do not know that under the then Admiralty Constabulary Headquarters building, (known better as the Old Bakery) there was once a framed inscription which said: "On this site of this building stood the arsenal of the Navy of the Religion built in 1597, rebuilt and enlarged in 1696 to accommodate three galleys on slips. In 1819 the British converted this building into a Mast House for the Royal Navy. In 1842 the arsenal was demolished and the present building erected as the Naval Bakery. Since 1965 it has been converted for use as the Royal Naval Education Centre". H.M.S. St. Angelo has a romance which goes back to the early days of the Mediterranean. After the victory over the Turks right up to the Order's expulsion by the French in 1798, St. Angelo was maintained in a state of readiness unequalled by any other fort in Europe.