At PortADa, the research focuses on a documentary corpus composed of ship arrival notices published in the local daily press at the ports under study. These notices provide an almost complete record of vessels arriving at port, span a broad chronology —although the project centres on the period 1850–1914—, and contain diverse and abundant information. Overall, they allow for highly detailed descriptions and analyses of maritime and port traffic.

The content includes the port of embarkation (departure), ports of call, and duration of the voyage, as well as the type, name, and tonnage of the vessel, the name of the captain or skipper, and the nationality of the ship. Regarding the cargo transported, they report on its type, quantity, and recipients.

PortADa proposes the use of available computing tools and the development of innovative technologies to facilitate the automation of processing the large volume of data contained in these sources.