Cartagena Naval Base
History
The port of Cartagena, first founded by the Carthaginians in the 2nd century BC, occupies a strategic location on the Mediterranean Sea. It remained a commercial port until the reign of Philip V, when it was redeveloped as a major naval base alongside the expansion of the Spanish Navy.
Construction of the arsenal began in late 1731, and was completed in 1782, during the reign of Charles III. The final cost came to 112 million reales. The Cartagena naval base was a major industrial complex by the 18th century, with shipyards and workshops, carrying out carpentry, rigging and blacksmithing, as well as crafts and fine arts workshops to produce ship ornamentation and decoration. In the second half of the 18th century, 21 ships, 17 frigates and more than fifty brigs, xebecs, hulks, galleys, etc. were built there, as well as a large number of smaller vessels. The Arsenal employed several thousand people in the construction and the maintenance of the units of the Spanish Navy.
The Naval Base was enlarged during the reign of Isabel II in 1849. In 1889, electricity was introduced into the arsenal. In 1918, the moats of the dry docks built by Feringán were developed as submarine docks, in which role they still serve.
Ships
- Transport ships
- Martín Posadillo (owned by the Spanish Army but operated by the Navy)
- El Camino Español (owned by the Spanish Army but operated by the Navy)
- Polar research ships
- BIO Hespérides
- Las Palmas
- EW support ship
- Alerta
- Chilreu-class patrol vessels
- Descubierta-class corvettes
- Toralla-class patrol vessels
- Submarine rescue ships
- Neptuno
- Meteoro-class offshore patrol vessel