• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • RSS
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

Maritime History: Ship Engineering Drawings

August 28, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Drawings of Naval Vessels and Equipment, 1939 - 1945The Cartographic Branch at the National Archives is home to over one million ship plans, with records spanning more than 15 distinct Record Groups and over 25 separate series. These drawings are among the most requested records from researchers in the Cartographic Branch.

USS Oklahoma Booklet of General PlansThe National Archives holds ship engineering drawings for a majority of vessels commissioned by the United States Navy dating from the 1790s through the Korean War era. These drawings mostly consist of inboard and outboard profiles, deck plans, and sections, although additional general arrangement drawings exist for some ships.

The majority of ship plans held by the Cartographic Branch can be found within Record Group 19: Records of the Bureau of Ships. Established in 1940, the Bureau of Ships was responsible for the construction and maintenance of the ships of the US Navy.

Within Record Group 19, you will find the Alphabetical Series of Ship Engineering Drawings, National Archives Identifier 559623. This series, consisting of measured engineering drawings, is subdivided into rolled and flat sub-series of plans. The Cartographic Branch recently digitized over 11,000 of these drawings, now available to view and download in the Catalog: Alphabetical Series of Ship Engineering Drawings.

Learn more about these records, including blog posts with additional information and resources on the National Archives website: Ship Plans in the Cartographic Research Room at College Park, MD.

Photos, from above: drawings of Naval Vessels and Equipment, 1939-1945, U.S. Ship of the Line Ware #17; and USS Oklahoma (BB-37): booklet of General Plans – Cover & Title Page / General Dimensions & Data / Inboard Profile (National Archives).

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Engineering History, Maritime History, Material Culture, Military History, National Archives, Naval History, Navy

Please Support The New York Almanack

About Editorial Staff

Stories written under the Editorial Staff byline are drawn from press releases and other notices. Submit your news to New York Almanack here.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Help Support The Almanack

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • Pat Boomhower on Ask Governor Hochul to Support New York’s History
  • Pat Boomhower on Ask Governor Hochul to Support New York’s History
  • Nancy Fenn on Albany’s Anneke Jans Bogardus, Indecent Exposure, Trinity Church & The Bowery
  • Pat Boomhower on Historic Adirondack MacNaughton Cottage Being Rehabilitated
  • DonS on Historic Adirondack MacNaughton Cottage Being Rehabilitated
  • Becky Landy on Dr. Bradford VanDiver: Adirondack Renaissance Man
  • Douglas Morgan on Euro-American Expansion Into The Finger Lakes Region
  • Charles Yaple on Poetry: Out The Window
  • Bill Orzell on New Backstretch Housing Planned For Saratoga, Belmont
  • Jo Ann on Avoiding A Repeat of 2020 Election Attacks

Recent New York Books

Flee North Thomas Smallwood Early Underground Railroad
Making Long Island
The Witch of New York
styles brook book lorraine duvall
James Wilson: The Anxious Founder
Flatiron Legacy National Football League History NFL
Henry David Thoreau Thinking Disobediently
Prints of a New Kind: Political Caricature in the United States, 1789–1828
The Confidante - The Untold Story of the Anna Rosenberg Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America

Secondary Sidebar