[19] .... This article relates to...the rise and fall of a modest merchant fleet belonging to the island of Malta during the second and third quarters of the 19th century. After describing the broad outlines of Malta's trade and its merchant marine during the early modern period under the Order of St. John it looks at the effects of the Continental Blockade. The three-fold increase in the Maltese fleet in the decades after the end of the Blockade is ascribed both to the protection of the British flag and to the difficulties experienced by the Greek merchant navy in the 1820s and 1830s. Securing a minor role as grain carriers from the Black Sea, Maltese entrepreneurs nevertheless failed to