Archival Corpus

This is a local archive that depends on the Generalitat de Catalunya, the regional government, and was created in 1983. This archive preserves documentation regarding the area of the Ebro river delta, with Tortosa as the main city and one of the rare fluvial ports in Mediterranean Spain. Among other things, it preserves the archive of the former Ajudantia Militar de Marina de Tortosa, 1816-1954. Since the 18th century the Spanish territory has been divide in three big maritime Departments: Ferrol, Cadis (includes the Canary Islands) and Cartagena (includes Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia and the Balearic Islands). Each Department is divided in Maritime Provinces (that have changed along the years) and the main port in every province has a Capitania or a main office. Minor offices in small ports were called Ayudantías. Although formally every Capitania should dispatch old documentation to the capital of the Department (to be sent later to the central archive in Madrid or in Viso del Marques (see AGMAB),  most of the local archives have been destroyed or lost. There is no  inventory and it is quite difficult to locate any surviving sources.

We have located in this collection few interesting sources useful for the purposes of SeaLiT, under the reference ACTE290-95 / Ajudantia Militar de Marina de Tortosa. The most interesting is the Lista de Inscritos, that records all the working force. Other sources are the Libros de Registro de Buques (List of ships) registered in the port of Tortosa, which convey information e.g. for the coastal trade fleet. There are also four surviving pay roles: one of the laud Alfonso XII (1916-17), the laud Largo Caballero (1920—23), both doing river traffic, and two roles of the Anita, the only fluvial steamer operating in the river Ebro in the 1910’s.