Like a ballerina dancing on water

Maltese author Charles Flores writes about the Maltese dghajsa:

The picture of Malta's spectacular Grand Harbour is never complete without the colourful elegance of the dghajsa, the traditional passenger boat that has survived through the centuries incredibly from Phoenician times.
Like an ageless ballerina dancing on the water, the dghajsa may give the impression of fragility as it glides smoothly past the oil tankers and huge white tourist liners to cross the ancient harbour, from one special site to another... historical forts, bastions and underground silos, mediaeval palaces and winding wharves, busy shipyards and quaint little bays. But it is, in truth, quite a sturdy boat that can adapt itself remarkably well to both the oar and the modern outboard motor with a maximum of ten passengers if and when required.
That maximum was often mandatory during the British era when thousands of sailors used the dghajsa services to go ashore and back on board the Royal Navy ships of the Mediterranean fleet that used Malta as a strategic base.
The dghajsa is known to have offered the same reliable service to the fleets of the other imperial nations that once ruled over the Maltese Islands, from the French and the Knights of St John to the Arabs and the feudal lords of Europe.
One just can't help comparing the dghajsa with Venice's gondola which is known to have evolved from the same Phoenician prototype. That the two boats are sisters is a fact testified in the maritime records of the Venetian Republic.
In modern times, the dghajsa has for many years had to face an uncertain future. The only new boats being built were those for the annual 8th September Regatta, a series of races that go back to the time of the Knights and in which feature, sometimes rather too boisterously, the ardent crews from the towns and villages on the harbour coast line, Marsa, Kalkara, Vittoriosa, Cospicua, Senglea, the current Aggregate Shield Holders and Marsamxett (Valletta).