Ring, ring.
"Norfolk Marine Supply. How may I help you?"
"This is Lt. Shortstraw. Back about 20 years ago, you folks bought out Newport News Shipfitters?"
"Uh, sure, if you say so."
"In 1948, Newport News Shipfitters supplied us with leather gaskets for firefighting water supply lines for the Iowa class. Do you still have those drawings?"
"Drawings? ... There's nothing in the online catalog..."
"No, I'm told they would be drawings. On big sheets of paper."
"Paper?"
"Can I speak to someone...older?"
Eventually, they find Erasmus Sneed, aged 107, who is wheeled from the retirement home into the shop and over to the shelving in the darkest back corner. He points directly to the third shelf from the top, where they evict several small mammals and find a rolled up life-size drawing of the gasket.
"So, now, where do we get leather?"