You might want to get to Richmond with a good digital camera in order to get images of the working drawings. They, it is my understanding, are part of the permanent exibit on the second floor. The museum is web accessable. Send an eMail or give them a phone call.

By working drawings what is meant is an age browned large sheet of paper, stained with sweat and missing bits where the divider was repeatedly inserted to take off points. These are the images the ships were built from.

Robert Holcombe wrote his treatise in gaining a Masters degree from the University of North Carolina. It, as with any printed matter in circulation in the library system, is available through ILL (Inter-library Loan). Ask the Librarian at your library about making an ILL request. There ain't but one copy of this text, that I know of, well bound and on thick paper.