Cirkewwa

Cirkewwa is a ferry landing marked by a winding approach road, a jetty, and a ramp through which vehicles embark and disembark. It becomes a practical turning point in Creasy’s movements: first a place he reaches just in time to board, and later the setting for an unexplained maneuver between the ferry and a waiting car.

Setting and Function

Cirkewwa is reached by a winding road, and the Melitaland’s departure depends on a tightly timed loading process. When Creasy drives there in a battered Land Rover, the last cars are being loaded; by the time he reaches the approach road, the lines are being cast off and the ramp is rising. The terminal’s importance is therefore immediate and logistical: missing the ferry would mean spending the night in Malta.

The sequence also establishes how people and vehicles move through the landing. Creasy sounds his horn, Victor notices him from the ramp, and the ramp is lowered so the Land Rover can drive aboard. Later, Victor watches from the wheelhouse as the Melitaland edges into the jetty, while cars wait in line to leave the ferry. The ramp links the vessel, jetty, and road in a continuous passage that shapes both scenes.

Creasy’s Arrivals and Departures

At his first recorded arrival, Creasy makes the ferry by a narrow margin. Victor’s amused welcome frames the near miss as familiar banter, and Creasy replies by turning the joke back on him: he says Victor is actually two minutes early. The brief exchange gives the crossing a sociable, everyday texture after the urgency of the drive and the departing ramp.

On a later occasion, Creasy chooses to accompany Victor on the ferry after deciding that the troubles of the community that has accepted him have become partly his concern. As the Melitaland draws into Cirkewwa, Victor points out a large white-and-red Dodge at the front of the car queue, its chrome strips and rearing-stallion mascot making it conspicuous among the waiting vehicles. Creasy leaves the wheelhouse and waits for the moment when the cars begin rolling down the ramp.

The Dodge at the Jetty

Creasy crosses in front of the moving cars, walks to the queue, then abruptly opens the Dodge’s rear door and gets inside. From the wheelhouse, Victor cannot see what is happening within the car. He sees it rock on its soft springs, then stop; its engine starts, and the Dodge slowly pulls away from the jetty toward Valletta.

Half an hour later, with the other cars loaded and a crew member waiting for the signal to raise the ramp, Victor spots the Dodge returning. It pulls broadside to the ramp, and Creasy gets out of its back seat and crosses onto the ferry. The car heads back toward Valletta. Victor asks Creasy what happened, but the episode as presented leaves the purpose of the car trip unstated. Cirkewwa thus shifts from a straightforward point of passage into the setting for a brief, observed but unexplained exchange, its ferry timetable and vehicle queue providing the structure for Creasy’s movements.