Archival Corpus

The institution of the Inscription Maritime was established in France by Colbert, the first minister of state and chief of the naval administration, in 1668 as the ‘Systeme des classes’,  renamed  Inscription Maritime in 1784. The French coast was divided into districts of maritime inscription . Marine officers were responsible for the administration of the districts of  the maritime inscription Maritime, and were based on each port of France. The role of the "Inscription Maritime" is to register on indivudual registers any man who worked on the sea, by rank (Matricules de gens de mer), any ship attached to each French port (Matricule des batiments) as well as the traffic of the port.