Naval Architecture

Special Collections Research Guide

Scope and Content of Guide

This guide is an introduction to UNSW Special Collections manuscript and rare book sources relating to naval architecture, shipbuilding and marine engineering, with an emphasis on historical development and technological innovation.

How to use this guide

The guide is a selective list of resources to get you started.

Browse entries under Manuscript Collections and Rare Books and follow the links for more detailed descriptions.

Use Contact Us to ask a question, book an appointment to view material, or enquire about using material in classes.

We welcome all enquiries about using Special Collections in research and teaching.

Discover More

Special Collections holds over 400 manuscript and object collections, more than 13,000 rare books, and delivers online digital resources such as the Australians at War Film Archive.

Archival Collections & Objects - Search to identify additional Special Collections manuscripts and objects or Browse to explore the breadth of holdings
Rare Books - Find more rare books in the Library Catalogue (refine your results list by Featured Collections > CAN Special Collections to browse our titles)
Digitised Oral Histories - Visit the Australians at War Film Archive (AAWFA) to search across 2000 interviews with Australian service personnel from World War I to Afghanistan

Manuscript Collections

MSS 126 - Doug Robertson Maritime and Naval History Collection
A comprehensive collection of notebooks, research notes, newspaper clippings and plans – together with an extended sequence of 70,000 photographs and slides - compiled and collected by Australian ship expert and naval historian, Doug Robertson (1923-1984). The material documents naval history from the 17th -20th centuries, with an emphasis on merchant and naval ships in the period 1860-1974. Includes sail, steam, diesel and nuclear-powered ships of many types, such as tugs, lash vessels, cargo ships, tankers, ferries, lighthouse tenders, liners, destroyers, anti-submarine vessels, mine-sweepers, clippers, schooners, ketches and barques, amongst others.

Examples: Box 8/Folder 35 - Notebook entitled 'Sloops: WWI construction: Flower class; 24 class and KIL class (85)', c. 1915-1959; Box 16/Folder 86 - War vessels silhouette identification book, c. 1935-1943; Box 50/Folder 299 - Notes on model ship construction, including authentic specifications for USS Detroit (American light cruiser, 1923-46); Box 54/Folder 322 - Handmade illustrated book of ships, c1951; Box 79/Folder 436 - Pasted newspaper clippings and photographs; Box 145 AV - Ship photographs: C

Ships’ plans - Australian, British, Italian, Japanese and US vessels, including:

OS4 - USS North Carolina
OS5 - Benedetto Brin & Regina Margherita
OS6 - Dante Alighieri
OS7.1 - USS Olympia
OS7.2 - Harbour tug
OS7.4 - HMAS Warramunga
OS7.5 - HMAS Perth
OS7.6 - HMAS Sydney
OS8.1 - MTBs 347-364
OS8.2 - IJNS Nachi & IJNS Nagara
OS8.3 - HMS Magicienne
OS8.4 - Armament plans
OS9 - Royal Australian Navy
OS12 - Seven colour illustrations of World War II

MSS 222 – Papers of G.K. Dickson
Folder 1: Journal kept by G.K. Dickson while serving on HMS Euryalus from 1 June to 31 December 1905. Seventy-one pages with seventeen coloured maps and diagrams showing equipment and the routes taken by the Euryalus through Australian waters in the summer of 1905, and her journey to Gibraltar that autumn.

Including 17 coloured maps and diagrams showing equipment and routes taken.

MSS 271 – Papers of H.D. (Henry Douglas) Wilkin
Folder 1: Personal leather-bound journal compiled by midshipman (later Vice-Admiral) Henry Douglas Wilkin (1862-1931) whilst serving on various British Navy ships from 28 January 1878 to 14 February 1883 (including the Duke of Wellington, Tourmaline, Pegasus, Charybdis, Himalaya, Crocodile, Cruiser, Superb and Penelope).

The journal incorporates decorative coloured title pages and pencil & ink drawings of ships and other vignettes (anchors, local peoples, Christmas decorations), weather charts, harbour plans and maps (some foldout).

MSS 284 – Histories of Commissioned Ships in the Royal Australian Navy
Photocopy and carbon typescript drafts relating to Commissioned Ships serving in the Royal Australian Navy. The collection provides technical ship data together with a brief service history of between one to seventeen pages for each vessel from launching to disposal from 1866 to 1983. This information was collected for The Australasian Military History Database (MIHILIST), produced by UNSW Canberra.

Example: Box 7/Folder 234 HMS Warrnambool (I); Box 7/Folder 235 HMAS Warrego (I); Box 7/Folder 236 HMAS Warrego (II); Box 7/Folder 237 HMAS Watcher; Box 7/Folder 238 HMAS Waterhen

Rare Books

Australia's ships of war
Author: John Bastock
Date: 1975
Available at Canberra Special Collection (VA713.B37)

The Bombay dockyard and the Wadia master builders
Author: A.R Wadia (Ardeshir Ruttonji)
Date: 1957
Available at Canberra Special Collection (VM 299.7.I4 W3 1957)

Brassey's naval and shipping annual
Author: T. A Brassey (Thomas Allnutt)
Date: 1886-1948?
Available at Canberra Special Collection (V 10.B73)

British warships: the Royal Navy completely illustrated and described
Date: 1940?
Available at Canberra Special Collection (folio VA456.B75 1940)

Histoire de la Marine française
Authors: Charles M. de La Ronciere, G. Clerc-Rampal
Date: 1934
Available at Canberra Special Collection (folio DC50.L33)

The history of American sailing ships
Author: Howard I. Chapelle (Howard Irving)
Date: 1935
Available at Canberra Special Collection (VM23.C53 1935)

An history of marine architecture including an enlarged and progressive view of the nautical regulations and naval history, both civil and military, of all nations, especially of Great Britain
Author: John Charnock
Date: 1800-1802
Available at Canberra Special Collection (folio VM15.C52 1800)

The history of the American sailing Navy: the ships and their development
Author: Howard I. Chapelle (Howard Irving)
Date: 1949
Available at Canberra Special Collection (VA56.C43 1949)

A manual of naval architecture: for the use of officers of the Royal Navy, officers of the Mercantile Marine, shipbuilders and shipowners
Author: W. H. White
Date: 1877
Available at Canberra Special Collection (VM 145.W5 1877)

Navy Australia, an illustrated history
Author: George Odgers
Date: 1989
Available at Canberra Special Collection (VA713.O34 1989)

The protection of merchant ships against moored mines: a handbook for the use of captains of vessels fitted with the Otter installation
Date: 1917
Available at Canberra Special Collection (V 856 .P76)

The Royal Australian Navy: the first seventy-five years
Authors: Phillip Belbin, Ross Gillett
Date: 1986
Available at Canberra Special Collection (folio VA713.B45 1986)

The sailing Navy list: all the ships of the Royal Navy - built, purchased and captured - 1688-1860
Author: David Lyon
Date: 1993
Available at Canberra Special Collection (VA456.L95 1993)

Souvenir: 36 views illustrative of the American Fleet's visit to Australia, 1908
Date: 1908
Available at Canberra Special Collection (VA59.A8)

Teikoku gunkan shashin to shijitsu - bakumatsu iko = [Photographs of, and historical facts about, Imperial warships - since the end of the Tokugawa shogunate]
Author: Hitoka Hirose
Date: 1935
Available at Canberra Special Collection (VA653.P67 1935)

Warships
Author: Basil Gingall
Date: 1968
Available at Canberra Special Collection (V750.G5)

Warships of World War II
Author: J. J Colledge
Date: 1962-1963
Available at Canberra Special Collection (D771.L46 1962)

Collated by Special Collections: Mar 2019
Updated: February 2024