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This paper describes the historical sea level data that we have rescued from a tide gauge, especially devised originally for geodesy. This gauge was installed in Marseille in 1884 with the primary objective of defining the origin of the height system in France. Hourly values for 1885-1988 have been digitized from the original tidal charts. They are supplemented by hourly values from an older tide gauge record (1849-1851) that was rediscovered during a survey in 2009. Both recovered data sets have been critically edited for errors and their reliability assessed. The hourly values are thoroughly analysed for the first time after their original recording. A consistent high-frequency time series is reported, increasing notably the length of one of the few European sea level records in the Mediterranean Sea spanning more than one hundred years. Changes in sea levels are examined, and previous results revisited with the extended time series. The rate of relative sea level change for the period 1849-2012 is estimated to have been $$1.08\pm 0.04$$ mm/year at Marseille, a value that is slightly lower but in close agreement with the longest time series of Brest over the common period ( $$1.26\pm 0.04$$ mm/year). The data from a permanent global positioning system station installed on the roof of the solid tide gauge building suggests a remarkable stability of the ground ( $$-0.04\pm 0.25$$ mm/year) since 1998, confirming the choice made by our predecessor geodesists in the nineteenth century regarding this site selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]