The government has accepted a request made by a number of individuals who teamed up to rescue the Charlotte Louise - a sailing ship which featured in a number of films – to intervene and order the lifting of  the ship on land by means of the Hard Standing Facility in Marsaxlokk so that it could be restored to its former glory.

Last week, this newspaper ran an article highlighting their plea for the government to intervene to help avoid the ship sustaining more damage than it already has, since it was about to face the same fate for the third time, that of sinking.

Speaking to The Malta Independent, a spokesman for the group, Sandro Lucia, confirmed that the government accepted their request and as soon as the weather improves, the ship would be lifted.

The ship, which featured in the Malta-shot film The Count of Montecristo, among other films, had been reportedly found sunk in mysterious circumstances back in 2007 at its moorings in Sliema. Attempts to lift it after it sank had been successful but it sank once again in 2011 in Marsa.

Three years later, a group of rescuers teamed up to lift the boat of historical value from the seabed, successfully doing so by using a makeshift lifting mechanism comprising bags and barrels, on 25 February.

The person who initially came up with the idea to bring the ship to the surface after purchasing it from Transport Malta to restore it to its former glory for the public to enjoy, Italian-born Gabriele V. Tortorici, and who has been assisted by Maltese-born Sandro Lucia and a number of others, sent a letter, extracts of which were published in this newspaper last week, to the director-general of the Fisheries Department and a copy to the OPM appealing for help since the boat, which miraculously made a 25-mile trip to Marsaxlokk harbour from Marsa is tied to a buoy but is near to facing the same cruel fate.

The two had told this newspaper that the Hard Standing Facility refused to lift the 100-tonne boat using a 250-tonne crane on the grounds that the Charlotte Louise is not a fishing vessel.

While acknowledging that they were aware that the yard has a set of regulations to abide by, in a last-ditch attempt to save the sailing ship, they called on the government to make an exception and to request the Hard Standing Facility to lift the ship so that it could be restored by Mr Tortorici.

The facility is an EU-funded project in Marsaxlokk, intended for fishing vessels, but it had outgrown its original intention and today provides ship repair services to a wide variety of commercial vessels. The facility had been initially unveiled to the public as a form of subsidised assistance to local fishermen. The total cost of the project amounted to around €2 million, 75% financed by the Financial Instrument for Fisheries and Guidance (FIFG – Structural Funds), and the rest by the Maltese government.

The Charlotte Louise has a colourful history. The ship was built in Scotland in 1942 and first appeared in Malta in the late 1980s. Captain Morgan Cruises bought the vessel in 1992, and it was restored in 1999, operating locally as a tourist charter vessel.

She was previously also used by the Royal Navy, was stolen by pirates in Singapore in the 1950s, and eventually became the iconic face of Malta tourism, adorned with Maltese cross sails, and featured in a number of films.

The Charlotte Louise had been sitting underwater in the Marsa port.

Mr Tortoruci had told this newspaper that “after painstaking efforts, and considerable financial investment, I managed to raise her to the surface with air lifting bags and barrels.

“On Tuesday, 25 February the Charlotte Louise was successfully towed from Marsa and anchored in Marsaxlokk’s harbour.

“This was a huge achievement considering the incredible risk of her sinking again, and the fact that many people believed it could not be floated, let alone towed 25 miles.

“Unfortunately, on arrival at Marsaxlokk, the plan to have her lifted and transferred from the water to land by private crane operators fell through, and she could not be moved that day,” Mr Tortorici had explained.