Registers of ships, flatboats, and steamboats as reported by the Wharfinger, 1852-1870
Scope and Contents
Manuscript volumes, generally recording the dates of arrival and departure, name, tonnage, and levee dues assessed for each ship or other craft in the port of New Orleans. Many records also include remarks and/or records of payment of the levee dues. In some instances there are separate reports or other notes glued into the volumes. Separate books were kept for each class of vessel (i.e., ships, steamboats, and flatboats). The steamboat register, 1855-1858 (5th and 6th sections), also includes the Treasurer's returns of licenses issued in January and February, 1866 [a statistical report on one double page].
These volumes appear to have been kept by the Comptroller's Office to record the information conveyed in the weekly reports of the Wharfinger. Using that original information the Comptroller kept track of differences in the amounts so reported and the actual levee dues collected by the Collectors or the lease holders. It is also possible that these books were used by those parties themselves in making their collections.
Dates
- Creation: 1852-1870
Creator
- From the Collection: Board of City Trusts (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
Available on microfilm to registered researchers by appointment. Request by call number.
Biographical / Historical
Section 29 of the 1852 city charter provided that the Comptroller would have general supervision of the city's fiscal affairs and would keep a full set of books recording those affairs. Ordinance #54, passed by the Common Council in May, 1852, provided for the appointment of two Wharfingers who,along with their duties relative to the supervision of the port, were to make weekly reports to the Comptroller of all and every vessel entering the port,with the tonnage, etc. for each.
Ordinance #3151 (December, 1856) further required them to keep their own set of books to record the arrival and departure dates, names, masters or consignees, and tonnage for each vessel in separate books according to class of ship. Ordinance #2364 (August, 1855) called for the Comptroller to lease the revenues of the port to the highest bidders, based on a redivision of the port into six geographical sections. Subsequent laws provided for the releasing of those revenues, a practice which continued until all leases were canceled during the Civil War. Collection of levee dues was then placed in the hands of the Wharfingers (see ordinances #6035 and #6054). In 1869,ordinance #1630 provided for the election of four collectors of levee dues.
The 1870 charter placed the general supervision of the city's wharves in the hands of the new Administrator of Commerce and the revenues and operations of the port were again leased out. In 1896 the state Legislature created the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans and the city government lost direct control of port revenues and other port business.
Extent
19 Volumes (19 volumes, available on 4 rolls of microfilm)
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Arrangement
Arranged by class of vessel into two date groupings: 1852-1854/55 and 1855-1858; records for 1858-1870 are entered together in one master volume for each section.
Processing Information
Previously described, and in part microfilmed, as part of the"Wharfinger Records." Recataloged, 3/6/1989.
Repository Details
Part of the City Archives Repository
City Archives & Special Collections
219 Loyola Avenue
New Orleans LA 70112
504-596-2610
archivist@nolalibrary.org