Arsenal de La Carraca (La Carraca)

Arsenal de La Carraca, also designated the Naval Station of La Carraca, is a Spanish Navy arsenal and naval base used for shipbuilding and ship repair and for the storage and distribution of arms and ammunition. It lies in the Bay of Cádiz within the municipality of San Fernando, province of Cádiz, roughly 3 km south of Puerto Real and 9 km southeast of Cádiz, on a former island northeast of the Isla de León separated from it by the continuation of the Puntal Channel. The installation is surrounded by navigation channels; the channel fronting the dockyard carries 2 fathoms at low water. The yard occupies a rectangular enclosure of about 1,100 by 550 m. It falls under the Arsenal de Cádiz command, whose second-in-command post has been held at rear admiral rank.

The station berths the transport ship Contramaestre Casado (A-01) and the sail training ship Juan Sebastián Elcano (A-71).

Facilities cover ship construction, fitting out and repair. The dry docks completed in 1788 were supplemented by a further dock in the 19th century, and all remained in service until recent years. The site also includes a patent slip and building slips, workshops, warehouses, offices, dams and quays, together with magazines and munitions plant supporting the ordnance storage role. Three defensive batteries — San Fernando, San Ramón and Santa Rosa — were each armed with 11 guns.

The island was used for Spanish naval purposes from 1655, the arsenal taking its name from the wreck of an old carrack around which the first installations grew. Construction work began about 1720 under the naval policy of Felipe V, promoted by Patiño and later the Marqués de la Ensenada, with the main entrance to the San Fernando quay built by 1733 and shipbuilding beginning in 1736. A royal decree of Fernando VI dated 3 October 1752 formally authorised the shipyard and accelerated the works, which Antonio Valdés brought to completion in the late 18th century, making La Carraca the first naval construction centre built in Spain. Its facilities were used in 1887 for the construction of Isaac Peral's electrically driven submarine.