Hi Jo,

The history of the song is on Cyril's website. It was written in 1958 when he was about to leave the Navy to chance his arm at professionally singing and composing, and was deliberately written in the stamp-and-go shanty form. It also happened to be a time when he was very disillusioned and cynical about girls, which perhaps explains why this particular one was killed off, and he had also been in a car accident shortly before, which might have been an influence as well.

The problem with finding a girlfriend in Malta at that time was that there were comparatively few British girls around. They were all naval nurses and military office staff, and they of course only wanted to meet officers. If you were a naval rating who did get a date you either took her somewhere crowded on a ramshackle Malta bus or splashed out a lot of money to hire a (Yankee) car to somewhere more secluded, such as Ghajn Tuffieha Bay. Obviously, officers had the advantage here. The characters in the song are supposed to be British Services personnel.

Cyril later said that Sammy's Bar on Pieta Creek (since demolished) was "more like a little cave than a bar, and a couple of dozen people would fill it." It had two things in its favour - Sammy sold very strong and cheap white wine, and the high ceiling gave it great acoustics. So it was a favourite drinking-hole for Cyril and his mates. It became fashionable after Princess Margaret patronised it.

As mentioned above, the dghaisa or dysoes are gondola-like harbour craft which were (perhaps still are) used as water taxis. If a sailor missed the liberty boat back to his ship, which was of course a free ride, he would have to pay for a dyso later. Nowadays everyone sings, "Hey the last boats are leaving ..... Haul away a dyso." Cyril actually wrote, "Hey the last boat's a-leaving .... Call away a dyso." The idea is of a bunch of sailors shouting out to a love-sick mate that the last liberty boat is about to go, but he wants to down a few more drinks on his own and tells them he will call for a dyso later.