The “Matrícula de Mar” or Marine Enrolment was used as a system for conscripting men into the Navy. In 1687, Cambrils had 17 men engaged in work at sea. By 1765, there were 87, and 113 in 1826, between sailors and fishermen.

The arrival of the railway meant that many coastal sailors changed to fishing, either trawling or with fishing gear such as longline, pots and creels or sardine nets.

By 1931, 418 men from Cambrils were recorded as being engaged in fishing within the Cambrils Fishermen’s Society, the precursor of today’s Cambrils Fisher- men’s Guild.

The presence in the port of Cambrils of entities that keep alive the tradition of rowing and lateen sailing reminds us just how hard life was for those early generations of fishermen who went out to sea without engines.

Arjau Vela Llatina de Cambrils, Vent d’Estrop and Rem Cambrils all bear witness to that tradition.