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A sleek yacht sailing out of the Grand Harbour while a fishing trawler is on its way to the Fisheries Wharf where they would sell their catch. It shows the contrast of life; one is going out to enjoy himself cruising around the Maltese Archipelago while another is tired after days out fishing working hard to eke out a living. The Grand Harbour is still a hub of activity but its type of activity has changed; up to the Second World War it was the base for the British Mediterranean Fleet with its fleet command at Fort St. Elmo. Even from the dawn of settlements in Malta the Grand Harbour was the main attraction why civilizations came and colonized the Island. Starting with the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans and Arabs who lost control in the eleventh century. After the end of Arab domination but not expulsion, which came later under King Roger II (Norman), Malta’s only enticement was its strategic position and namely its harbour. This interest culminated when the Order of St John had to accept Tripoli and Malta as they had no other place to stay in, after having been expelled from Rhodes by Suleiman the Magnificent Sultan of the Sublime Porte. The Order came to Malta with the intention of staying here temporarily, but all this changed when Grandmaster La Vallette realized that there was other place to go to and that Malta would serve their purpose of becoming a base for their fleet which was always on the prowl to capture and harass Moslem trade and shipping. In 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte wrested the island from the Order of St John and sent the Grandmaster kicking. Many blame Grandmaster Ferdinand von Hompesch for this defeat but it was a fait accompli as the Maltese were fed up with a declining Order and worse still many French knights sided openly with the Napoleonic forces. So ended the glorious stay of the Order of St John in Malta and started the ill fated stay of two years of the French who were in their turn ignominiously expelled by the British in 1800. The British colonized the Island and had a naval and military presence up to 1979 when the last British serviceman left the Island. It was during the British stay that the Grand Harbour saw its heyday; it would be the hub of the British naval power in the Mediterranean and was an important staging post for the British fleet after the building of the Suez Canal in 1869. The Suez Canal facilitated the British control over the Indian Ocean and the vast Indian Empire, from now onwards ships bound from and to Britain did not need to go round Africa but could sail through the Mediterranean, stop at Malta before going to Port Said and then through the Suez Canal into the Indian Ocean and on to India ‘The Jewel in the Crown’ of Imperial Britain.