A description of the Spanish naval port Carthagena, Spain written by Mordecai Manuel Noah around 1813-1815

Ron van Maanen

It’s not so difficult to find more information dealing with the yards, naval bases and infrastructure from the British and United States navies. If we want to find more about for instance the Spanish navy, it’s less easy. Mordecai Manuel Noah paid some attention to Carthagena, a harbour with a long period dating from the Roman history. He gave the following information.

P. 170
“We came to, at Carthagena, merely for the purpose of spending an hour at this famous arsenal and town, originally built in the time of Hannibal. The entrance to the harbour is narrow and secure, and is defended by two citadels built on high hills, and commanding the town ; a fine mole in excellent order, on which near sixty cannon are mounted, forms an extensive basin for men of war. Carthagena is built on the declivity of a hill, and is surrounded by high and rugged mountains. It has ever been an extensive naval depot, and the store-houses, work-shops, and other buildings necessary for «n arsenal and dock-yard, are numerous and valuable. A good naval academy and observatory, facing the port, and built in the most simple and chaste style of architecture, contributes eminently to the embellishment of the place ; the streets are rather wider than in other cities, and very filthy, and the inhabitants, from the epidemic, which almost annually prevails, together with the decay of the naval power of Spain, have been reduced from 60O,000, to about 30,000, and are all poor ; the soldiers are ragged and receive no pay, and the city has an air of desolation and decay.”

Source
Mordecai Manuel Noah. Travels in England, France, Spain and the Barbary States: in the years 1813-1814 and 15. New York/London, 1819.