The NRG's Maritime Institution Survey

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Plans of Newport-News-Built Ships

Survey submitted by Joe McCleary, Williamsburg, VA

The following is from an article which originally appeared in the Nautical Research Journal, September, 1997,
by J. R. McCleary, a Director of the Nautical Research Guild, and retired U.S. Navy Captain.

Address: National Archives at College Park, Maryland, (Archives II) (see directions in end paragraph)
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Contact:
Tel/fax: (301)713-6800/
(301) 713 6800 (General)
3rd Floor, Plans (301) 713 7040 (Ships Plans)
5th Floor, Photos (301) 713 6625 x234 (Photos)
E-mail: inquire@nara.gov
Internet: http://www.nara.gov

Hours: 8:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday

8:45 a.m. to 9:00p.m. on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Until World War Two, the Department of the Navy acted as its own archivist for the records, documents, and ships' plans that it had acquired for a century and a half. As the result of the National Archives Act of 1934, which created the National Archives and Records Administration, the Navy turned over, and has continued to turn over, its records and plans to the National Archives where the plans are cataloged, preserved, and made available (unless they are classified) for study by scholars and the public at large.

Unfortunately, a great deal of thought was not always applied by navy officials (including myself) about which items should be turned over to the archives for preservation. Consequently, the range and depth of navy records in the archives is not always complete. There has also been loss and pilferage over the years. It has not helped that in recent years the collection of naval ships' plans in Record Group 19 has been moved at least three times. Each of these moves resulted in further losses and deterioration especially with the older plans.

Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia, has built hundreds of vessels. Many were for the United States Navy and plans for some of these have become part of the collections of the National Archives. The huge shipbuilding firm will offer an award at the Mariners' Museum Competition and Exhibition for Scale Ship Models in 2000. The award will be for the best model of a vessel built by the company or any of its subsidiaries since its founding in 1886.

In an effort to help people compete for the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company's award, I have compiled the following roster of naval vessel plans in the National Archives. As far as I know, the list is complete for military vessels; while the company built many merchant vessels, there are no plans for them in the archives.

The roster was compiled from a review of the indexes of Record Group 19 for ships' plans held by the National Archives at their facility in College Park, Maryland. This review covered holdings on microfilm and on hardcopy plans which are, generally, original. My work was limited to an index search and does not necessarily indicate that all plans found in the index are still available in the collection. The sad fact of life is that many plans have been lost or stolen over the years and the index listing is no guarantee that all these plans still exist.

I have placed a star (*) before any vessel heading where I thought the group of indexed plans indicated that there was sufficient coverage for a model builder to have a reasonable chance of building a fairly detailed model. This indication may be misleading as the plans listed in the index may be missing from the collection. This indication also does not apply to microfilm as the indexes do not actually indicate how extensive any of the microfilm coverage is. Microfilm coverage tends to be better than hardcopy coverage since it is harder to steal, lose, and destroy microfilm collections.

National Archives

Record Group 19, Microfilm Plans

Roll numbers, M-x, follow ship designators.

USS Yorktown (CV-5), M-22.

USS Enterprise (CV-6), M-22.

USS Mississippi (BB-41), M-2.

USS Maryland (BB-46), M-8.

USS West Virginia (BB-48), M-8.

USS Shark (SSN-59l), M-3.

USS John Marshall (SSBN-611), M-3.

Record Group 19, Hardcopy Plans

USS Boise (CL-47), 4 sheets; only faired lines, machinery, and armament.

*USS Indiana (BB-58), 15 sheets including general plans booklet.

USS Hornet (CV-8), 2 sheets including general plans booklet.

USS Yorktown (CV-5), 11 sheets; faired lines but no general plans; see Microfilm Plans, above.

USS Kearsarge (BB-5), 8 sheets including sheer, half-breadth, and body plans.

USS Kentucky (BB-6), 3 sheets including outboard and inboard profiles, cross sections, and an information sheet.

*USS Illinois (BB-7), 14 sheets including sheer, half-breadth, and body plans, inboard and outboard profiles, armament, and sections.

*USS Houston (CA-30), 18 sheets including finished lines, inboard and outboard profiles, main and upper deck arrangements, and sections.

*USS Dahlgren (DD-187), 33 sheets sheer, half-breadth, and body plans, inboard and outboard profiles, sections, general armament, and extensive list of general arrangements.

*USS Goldsborough (DD-188), 7 sheets including inboard and outboard profiles, general plans booklet, midship and various other sections.

*USS Helena (PG-8), 20 sheets including sheer, half-breadth, and body plans, inboard and outboard profiles, main deck arrangement, cross sections.

*USS Ranger (CY-4), 30 sheets including extensive list of plans and general plans booklet.

*USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), 41 sheets including extensive list of various plans.

USS Maryland (BB-46), 10 sheets including faired lines and offsets plus general plans booklet; see Microfilm Plans, above.

*USS Maryland (ACR-8), 20 sheets including sheer, half-breadth, and body plans, inboard and outboard profiles, cross sections, deck arrangement plans.

USS Minnesota (BB-22), 12 sheets including sections and deck arrangements.

*USS Nashville (PG-7), 9 sheets including sheer, half-breadth, and body plans, cross sections, main, upper, and bridge arrangements.

USS Tuna (SS-27), 3 sheets including inboard and outboard profiles and cross sections.

*USS Texas (BB-35), 24 sheets including sheer and half-breadth plans, main and bridge decks, cross sections, 13-inch turrets, 6-inch guns, and shields.

*USS West Virginia (BB-48), 10 sheets including lines, body plan, sections, offsets, booklet of general plans; see Microfilm Plans, above.

USS Virginia (BB-13), 14 sheets including outboard profile, main, gun, and upper deck and upper platform arrangements, boat stowage, and midship section.

Using the National Archives

National Archives at College Park, Maryland, is called Archives II and is located near exit 28B on the north side of the Capital Beltway. There is ample free parking plus a cafeteria. Archives II can be reached by public bus from the District of Columbia Metro stations of the Green Line at Greenbelt and Prince George's Plaza. Archives II is open from 8:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday and from 8:45 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Ships' plans are found on the third floor. The facility has the ability to make a limited number of full-size xerographic copies from paper originals on the spot, at $1.50 per square foot, or an unlimited number of copies through a local archives-approved contractor with some time delay. Copies of drawings on microfilm can be made through an archives-approved contractor at a small charge with about a six-week time delay. For more information: telephone (301)713-6800; website is at: http://www.nara.gov

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