The Marine Hydrographic Institute, an essential institution.
The Marine Hydrographic Institute, an essential institution.
The Instituto Hidrográfico de la Marina in Cadiz (Photo of the Office of the Ombudsman - Government of Spain)
To look for the roots of the activity carried out by the Institute, we would have to go back to the House of Recruitment, which was founded in the Atarazanas of Seville in 1503 by the Catholic Kings.
The House of Recruitment, despite having been subordinate from 1524 to the Royal and Supreme Council of Indias, has long led the discovery, colonization and trade of the New World. The first complete letters of the land were produced there and can be considered in addition to the first nautical university, the first coordinating body and producer of nautical mapping in an official and organized way. With his disappearance in 1790, the need to create an entity that would fill the vacuum left by him became apparent.
Although there had been a Hydrographic Deposit since 1770, with the publication of the "Atlas Marítimo de España" by Vicente Tofiño - the top work of Spanish cartography - there is an urgent need to create an agency that coordinates and systematizes hydrographic work and cartographic production. So it will be born byR.O.of 17 December 1797 the Directorate of Hydrographic Work or Directorate of Hydrography, among which the first works must be highlighted the publication of the first letters of the famous Malaspina Expedition (1789-1794), possibly one of the brightest of the 18th century.
In just over a century, the Directorate of Hydrography developed a great deal of work. In the middle of the 19th century, the Hydrographic Commissions of the Peninsula, the Antilles and the Philippines will be formed to be able to renew the uprisings of the Peninsula and to map our overseas possessions, in an enormous effort that resulted in one of the most extensive nautical mapping collections of the time.
The beginning of the 20th century will mark a profound reorganisation of Hydrography. The Directorate of Hydrography will be dissolved and its powers will be shared by several bodies.
In 1908, the Speciality of Hydrography in the Navy was officially sanctioned and recognized, and the Academy was established in the Vapor "Urania" for its teaching (Seoane & Prado Collection).
In 1921, Spain was one of the eighteen founding States of the International Hydrographic Bureau, a body created to promote cooperation and standardization between the Hydrographic Services of the different Member States. In 1927, Section IV, the Navy's Hydrographic Service, was established in the San Fernando Marine Observatory.
At this time, the construction of the "Tofiño" and "Malaspina" flat ships, which, after the stormy beginnings marked by the Civil War, developed a great deal of cartographic work in the Canary Islands, and all African colonies until the 1970s. In the first, the School of Hydrography was also installed.
In 1942 the "Urania" was replaced by the Yate Real "Giralda" (Photo Military Naval School).
Establishment of the Marine Hydrographic Institute
In 1943, in view of the need to enhance hydrography, the hydrographic service is independent of the Marine Observatory and thus the Marine Hydrographic Institute was born, by law of 30 December, based in Cadiz and as a body dependent on the Navy General Staff, to give impetus to the mapping and to achieve a wider action in the functions related to hydrography and navigation.
His first director was the AdmiralD.Fernando Balén García and all the staff and material that had been to date at the San Fernando Marina Observatory, gradually moved to the newly created Centre. The Institute & apos; s facilities were destroyed, as a result of the explosion in August 47 of a mine tank located at the submarine defence base in the vicinity of it. The reconstruction lasted eight years, moving to the new building the units that had until then been scattered in private houses and barracks. In 1970, the Navy Hydrographic Institute became a Navy Agency, directly under the Chief Admiral of the General Staff.
The Management of Cartography Act subsequently states that the State administration will be responsible for the formation and conservation of basic Nautical Cartography through the Marine Hydrographic Institute. In this way the Hydrographic Institute is equated with the National Geographical Institute and its cartographic production is given the category of State Cartography and Official Documentation and required use for the navigator.
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