Hull, machinery, piping, magazine, rigging, tank, and docking drawings were updated to reflect what was truly installed. Docking plans recorded blocks, shores, rudders, propellers, and appendages that could otherwise be damaged. Copies went to the ship, naval authorities, and the dockyard, while later refits could be recorded on the originals or on new sets. The Albatross drawings reproduced in the book provide a concrete example, and the surviving Cockatoo Island records entered the National Archives when the dockyard closed in 1992. These records guided safe docking and maintenance and could remain the only record of a ship as it left the yard. The examples make ship plans a living technical archive rather than a design-stage illustration.
Chapter · 1:16:35-1:20:03
Why as-fitted drawings preserve a ship's real design
A Cockatoo Island book explains how as-fitted drawings recorded the actual ship after construction changes, refits, and modernisation.