What shipbreaking-yard records can and cannot reveal

Would records of material recovered while scrapping warships help historians compare how they were built?

They could help, but only after accounting for the several demilitarization stages that stripped sensitive equipment before commercial scrapping.

Warships did not necessarily arrive at a commercial breaker intact. Weapons, stores, and sensitive equipment could be removed before the ship reached the yard. The disposal process could involve separate stages for personnel with high-level clearances, ordinary security clearances, and no clearance requirement. The first two stages would take place on naval property, with uncertain access to their records. A breaker's recovery figures could therefore help compare a ship with its design, but they would describe what remained after those earlier removals.