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.