Evidence
12 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-12).
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[1]Ships' Data, U.S. Naval Vessels, 1945, Volume III (NAVSHIPS 250-012), Floating Dry Dock Characteristics table, p. 607 - AFD-12 row [other_primary]
- Locator
- p. 607, Floating Dry Dock Characteristics table, row 'AFD12' (Google Books scan mirrored at shipscribe.com)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Official Navy tabulation lists AFD-12 as a '1-piece, steel' mobile floating drydock: nominal lifted capacity 1,000 tons; suitable for YN- and AM-type craft; length overall 200'0"; length on pontoon blocks 200'0"; length inside 185'0"; width overall 64'0"; width clear inside 45'0"; draft over blocks 14'6"; draft maximum when submerged 27'0"; draft light 3'5"; construction start/finish 1943/1943; listed in the construction-location group 'Navrepbase, San Diego, Calif.'
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1943-1945
- Population
- Construction workforce, Naval Repair Base San Diego (1943)
- Limitations
- Establishes hull identity, type, and principal characteristics from the official register publication - contains no asbestos, materials, insulation, or crew information. Location column gives the construction/assembly site group, not the fabricating contractor (unnamed for this hull). Secondary column values read from a rotated Google-scan table; the headline values are corroborated independently by the BuDocks type history (200-ft length, 64-ft width, 45-ft clear inside, 14.5-ft over blocks, 1,000-ton capacity).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-afdl-12-afdl12-01
-
[2]Bureau of Yards and Docks, 'Building the Navy's Bases in World War II' (U.S. Navy, 1947), Chapter IX, Floating Drydocks (HyperWar mirror) [other_primary]
- Locator
- Chapter IX, 'Types of Floating Drydocks,' 'Auxiliary Floating Dock,' 'Auxiliary Floating Dock, Lengthened,' 'Deployment' sections
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Official BuDocks history defines the AFD type: 'Mobile, military, steel trough type, unit dock, with faired bow and stern, of 1,000 tons lifting capacity,' 200 ft long and 64 ft wide with 45-ft clear width inside wing walls and 14.5-ft draft over blocks, entirely welded steel, fully self-contained with diesel-electric power plants and limited repair facilities; construction distributed among five contractors at six plants (three East Coast, one Gulf, one West Coast, one upper Mississippi). Five AFDs were modified by an 88-ft midships section to 288 ft/1,900 tons ('AFDL' originally meaning Lengthened). In the 1946 reclassification all AFDs became 'AFDL - Auxiliary Floating Drydock Little' (under 10,000 tons) - a designation change, not a new hull.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1941-1947
- Population
- WWII floating-drydock crews (type context)
- Limitations
- Type/program-level history; does not name hull 12, does not state which five docks were lengthened, and contains no asbestos or materials statement. Confirms AFD-12 and AFDL-12 are one hull under successive designations.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-afdl-12-afdl12-02
-
[3]Carter, 'Beans, Bullets, and Black Oil: The Story of Fleet Logistics Afloat in the Pacific During World War II' (Naval History Division, official), Chapter XVI (HyperWar mirror) [other_primary]
- Locator
- Chapter XVI, 'Seeadler Harbor, Manus' section
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- The official fleet-logistics history records that the Third Fleet logistic plan for Operation STALEMATE II required at Seeadler Harbor, Manus: 'one 90,000-ton floating drydock, one 1,000-ton floating drydock, one destroyer tender, one repair ship, two 3,000-ton floating drydocks, and four floating workshops' - the 1,000-ton requirement matching the AFD type; Service Squadron Ten's Seeadler detachment operated the repair complex from late August 1944.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1944
- Population
- ServRon Ten Seeadler detachment; crews of docked vessels
- Limitations
- Establishes that a 1,000-ton AFD-type dock was required and present at Manus from about September 1944, but does not name the hull number. Consistent with - not proof of - the specialist attribution of AFD-12 to Manus.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-afdl-12-afdl12-03
-
[4]Official U.S. Navy photograph 80-G-286199, NARA General Photographic Files (NAID 520587), via NHHC/Wikimedia Commons [other_primary]
- Locator
- USN photo 80-G-286199; NARA catalog series 80-G (NAID 520587)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Official U.S. Navy photograph documents a small AFD-type floating drydock holding submarine chaser PC-1121 in its basin at Seeadler Harbor, Manus Island, Admiralty Islands, in September 1944, with Quonset-hut facilities attached to the dock.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1944-09
- Population
- Dock crew and PC-1121 crew (unidentified counts)
- Limitations
- The official caption does not identify the dock's hull number - the image documents an AFD-type dock at Manus at that date, not AFD-12 specifically. Ships' Data lists multiple sister docks deployed forward; hull-level attribution rests on the specialist source (ev-07).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-afdl-12-afdl12-04
-
[5]Naval Vessel Register, service-craft detail page 'NO NAME (AFDL 12) (ex - AFD 12)' (page updated 2000-09-08; content verified via Internet Archive capture 2020-10-29) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NVR SHIPSDETAIL AFDL-12 page, archived 2020-10-29
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- The official register lists AFDL-12 (ex-AFD-12), 'SMALL AUXILIARY FLOATING DRY DOCK (N-S-P),' Class AFDL 1, UIC 14812, steel hull and steel superstructure, non-self-propelled. Status: 'Disposed of by transfer to other Government Agencies, States. Schools, Sea Scouts, etc.'; date status changed 07/01/1984; custodian category 'Schools, Organizations and Private Enterprises.' All milestone-date fields (award, keel, launch, commission, in-service, decommission, stricken) are blank in the register.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1943-1984
- Limitations
- Authoritative for designation, type, material, and the 1984-07-01 disposal date and transfer category; does not name the recipient entity, record any build or service dates, or contain materials/asbestos information. Live NVR serves only a page shell for pre-1987 disposals - content verified through the archived capture.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-afdl-12-afdl12-05
-
[6]ShipbuildingHistory (T. Colton), 'US Navy Dry Docks AFDB AFDM AFDL ARDM ARD YFD' table; Lake Union Drydock Co. official facilities page; Lake Union Drydock Co. v. Department of Natural Resources, 143 Wn. App. 644 (2008) [reputable_press]
- Locator
- auxafd.htm AFDL-12 row; https://www.ludd.com/facilities (Drydock #9); 143 Wn. App. 644, paragraph 2
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Specialist shipbuilding table records AFDL-12 delivered October 1943 (200 ft, 800-ton column figures) with disposition 'To Lake Union DD 1984, active' - i.e., transferred to Lake Union Drydock Co., Seattle, in the 1984 disposal year matching the official NVR transfer. The operator's official facilities page lists 'Drydock #9' rated 1,200 LT, 200 LF x 44 LF - dimensionally consistent with a 200-ft AFD hull; a 2008 Washington Court of Appeals opinion records the company operating three floating drydocks on its Lake Union site.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1943, 1984-present
- Population
- Commercial drydock crews, Lake Union, Seattle (1984-present, reported)
- Limitations
- Secondary compilation, not an official disposal document - the NVR names no recipient, and Lake Union Drydock's page does not state dock #9's Navy origin. The ex-AFDL-12 = LUDD #9 identification is circumstantial (matching 200-ft dimensions and the 1984 transfer category) - reported as unverified at the documentary level. Lift-capacity conventions differ across sources (800/1,000/1,200 tons).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-afdl-12-afdl12-06
-
[7]NavSource Online Service Ship Photo Archive, AFDL-12 page (ex-AFD-12), incl. crew-contributed photograph credited 'Paul Harig EM1/c USN USS AFD-12' [reputable_press]
- Locator
- navsource.org/archives/09/28/2812.htm, AFDL-12 entry and photo caption
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Specialist reference records AFD-12 'placed in service as AFD-12 at Manus, Admiralty Islands circa 1944'; 'redesignated AFDL-12, 1 August 1946'; 'disposed of 1 July 1984'; and carries a crew photograph captioned 'AFD-12 dry docked in the Advance Base Section Dock ABSD-4 at Manus, Admiralty Islands, 26 November 1945' contributed by a documented AFD-12 crew member - i.e., the small dock itself undergoing docking inside the fleet's 90,000-ton sectional dock.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1944-1946
- Population
- AFD-12 crew (undocumented count; class-era references suggest ~60 for self-contained AFD-type docks - unverified)
- Limitations
- NavSource is a specialist secondary archive, not an official register - carried as a lead, not a verified station record. The Manus assignment is corroborated at type level by the official 1,000-ton-dock requirement and the official September 1944 photograph (neither hull-identified). The 1946-08-01 redesignation is consistent with the documented class-wide reclassification; the 1984-07-01 disposal matches NVR. NavSource's own spec block for this page applies lengthened-dock figures - see correction row ev-08.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-afdl-12-afdl12-07
-
[8]Ships' Data 1945 Vol. III AFD table vs. NavSource AFDL-12 spec block; BuDocks 'Building the Navy's Bases' ch. IX lengthened-dock passage [other_primary]
- Locator
- SDB 1945 v3 p. 607 (AFD12 row) and p. 608 (AFDL 7, 22, 23, 32, 33 rows); NavSource 2812 spec block
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Published spec blocks for AFDL-12 (e.g., NavSource: 288-ft length, 1,900-ton lift, 12,000-t displacement, 3'3" light/31'4" flooded drafts) reproduce the lengthened-variant figures. The official 1945 Ships' Data places AFD-12 in the standard group (200'0" length, 1,000-ton nominal lift, 14'6" over blocks, 27'0" max submerged, 3'5" light); the five docks actually lengthened by an 88-ft section to 288 ft/1,900 tons were AFD(L) 7, 22, 23, 32, and 33 - not hull 12. Secondary lists including AFD-12 among the lengthened five are inconsistent with the official table.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- correction
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1943-1946 (record dates); 2026 (secondary-source framings)
- Limitations
- Corrects published spec blocks and secondary-source lengthened-dock lists against the official register publication; bears on characteristics only, not on any asbestos question.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-afdl-12-afdl12-08
-
[9]CourtListener searches, 2026-09-20: "AFDL-12" type=o - 0 published opinions; "AFD-12" type=o - 0 published opinions; "floating drydock" asbestos type=o - 1 result [court_record]
- Locator
- CourtListener search endpoint (API throttled 429 during session; verified via the published-opinion HTML search path)
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- No qualifying asbestos litigation located: exact-name searches for 'AFDL-12' and 'AFD-12' returned zero published opinions. The only floating-drydock + asbestos hit (Fireman's Fund Insurance v. Great American Insurance, 10 F. Supp. 3d 460, S.D.N.Y. 2014) is an insurance-coverage dispute about asbestos-containing materials at an insured premises - it names no Navy floating drydock and is classified non-qualifying.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 2026-09-20
- Limitations
- Published-opinion index only; RECAP dockets, unpublished dispositions, and state trial records are not fully covered by this index, so absence of a located opinion does not prove absence of claims. Litigation-stage discipline: no pleading, discovery record, trial finding, or judgment naming this hull was located at any stage.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-afdl-12-afdl12-09
-
[10]Batch-571 search ledger (this record): NVR (live + archived), Ships' Data 1945 v3, BuDocks base history, Carter fleet-logistics history, NARA photo 80-G-286199, NavSource, shipbuildinghistory, Lake Union Drydock official site, CourtListener name/hull searches, USCG vessel-documentation search [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-afdl-12-afdl12-01 through sl-uss-afdl-12-afdl12-12
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or docketed case naming AFD-12/AFDL-12 was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). The official registers and histories searched contain no materials statement for this dock.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 2026-09-20
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - a 1943 self-contained welded-steel dock with diesel-electric machinery and repair facilities is era-consistent with asbestos-containing insulation, gaskets, and fittings. Does not establish presence or absence; does not establish or defeat any exposure claim or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-afdl-12-afdl12-10
-
[11]Corn, J.K., and J. Starr, 'Historical perspective on asbestos: Policies and protective measures in World War II shipbuilding,' American Journal of Industrial Medicine 11(3):359-373 (1987); with BuDocks 'Building the Navy's Bases' ch. IX for the dock's self-contained plant description [other_primary]
- Locator
- AJIM 11(3):359-373; Building the Navy's Bases ch. IX 'Auxiliary Floating Dock' section
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Peer-reviewed scholarship documents extensive asbestos use as fireproofing and insulation in U.S. WWII shipbuilding - the era and program under which this welded-steel dock was built. The official type history documents that AFD-type docks were fully self-contained with diesel-electric power plants, repair facilities, and crew accommodations - machinery, piping, fittings, and quarters that in 1943-vintage naval construction commonly incorporated asbestos insulation, gaskets, packing, electrical insulation, and brake linings. The dock's function, repeated drydocking of asbestos-insulated warships, is a documented type-level occupational pathway.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1943 construction era; wartime service
- Population
- WWII naval-craft construction trades and floating-drydock crews (class context)
- Limitations
- Program/era- and type-level inference only; neither source names this hull nor documents its materials, quantities, locations, condition, or any individual exposure. Asbestos presence aboard this hull is not established - reported as inference, not ship-proven.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-afdl-12-afdl12-11
-
[12]NARA Guide to Federal Records: RG 71 (Bureau of Yards and Docks), RG 24 (Bureau of Naval Personnel - deck logs), RG 313 (Naval Operating Forces - CinCPac/SoWesPac), RG 181 (Naval Districts - 11th Naval District, San Diego) [other_primary]
- Locator
- archives.gov record-group guides 071, 024, 313, 181
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Archival leads (not retrieved - record-group mapping only, no spend authorized): RG 71 holds BuDocks floating-dock design and construction records for the AFD program; RG 24 holds service-craft deck logs where extant (would document AFD-12's station dates and crew); RG 313 holds CinCPac/Southwest Pacific deployment and base records for Manus/Seeadler; RG 181 holds 11th Naval District records including Naval Repair Base San Diego (the dock's listed construction location); DRMS/disposal files would name the 1984 transfer recipient.
- Verification
- unverified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1943-1984 records
- Limitations
- Record-group mapping only - no box-level retrieval performed; existence of asbestos-specific or hull-specific documents is unknown until surveyed. Nothing in this row is an asbestos finding or a service-history finding.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-afdl-12-afdl12-12
