USS ALASKA (CB-1)

Evidence

7 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-7).

1. [1]DANFS, Alaska III (CB-1) (builder, dates, Pacific screening narrative, inactivation and disposal; verbatim transcription - live NHHC page serves 404; 2012-06-14 Wayback capture of the official page exists at web.archive.org/web/20120614065539/www.history.navy.mil/danfs/a5/alaska-iii.htm) [nhhc_danfs]

   Locator

   DANFS entry, specifications block + full service narrative (ibiblio HyperWar transcription; Wayback capture of official NHHC page)

   Finding type

   vessel_history

   Finding

   DANFS record for this hull, lead ship of the 'large cruiser' class: laid down 17 December 1941 at Camden, N.J., by New York Shipbuilding Corp.; launched 15 August 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Ernest Gruening, wife of the Governor of Alaska; commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard 17 June 1944, Capt. P. K. Fischler in command. Post-commissioning fitting out and fire-control alterations (four Mk. 57 directors) at Philadelphia Navy Yard; shakedown Chesapeake Bay and Gulf of Paria; Pacific transit December 1944; availability at Hunter's Point, San Francisco, before sailing for Hawaii 8 January 1945. Screened TF 58 carriers on the Tokyo strikes and the Iwo Jima operation; TG 58.4 for the Okinawa build-up - splashed a 'Frances' 18 March and a 'Judy' 19 March 1945, screened the crippled Franklin (CV-13) in TU 58.2.9 with sister Guam (CB-2); Okinawa support through April-May; TG 38.4 including the 9 June 1945 bombardment of Okino Daito Shima with Guam; TF 95 East China Sea sweeps July-August. Occupation duty at Jinsen (Inchon), Korea, from 8 September 1945, then Tsingtao, China; 'Magic Carpet' return November 1945. Boston Naval Shipyard inactivation availability 18 December 1945 - 1 February 1946; 'in commission, in reserve' at Bayonne, N.J., 1 August 1946; out of commission, in reserve, 17 February 1947. Never returned to active duty. Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register 1 June 1960; sold 30 June 1960 to the Lipsett Division of Luria Brothers of New York City to be broken up for scrap. Three battle stars for WWII service.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   supporting

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-18

   Study period

   1941-1960

   Population

   New York Shipbuilding construction trades 1941-44; Philadelphia NY trades 1944; Hunter's Point trades Jan 1945; crew 1944-47; Boston NSY trades 1945-46

   Limitations

   DANFS documents service history and specifications, not materials or asbestos content; the entry records no insulation, abatement, or hazardous-material information. Mirror transcription cited because the live NHHC page returns 404; the 2012-06-14 Wayback capture of the official history.navy.mil page is the parallel official-source locator.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-alaska-cb1-01

2. [2]DANFS disposal line + NYT, 25 Oct 1964, 'Shipbreaking Is But a Phase in Death and Life of Steel Ships' (Lipsett Division of Luria Bros. & Co. yard on the Hackensack River, South Kearny, N.J., scrapping up to 25 ships a year); corroborating secondary sources: Wikipedia 'Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company' (numerous warships incl. Alaska scrapped at the former Federal yard by Lipsett Corp.); Wikipedia 'USS Alaska (CB-1)' citing Garzke & Dulin p.187 for the 1958 BuShips missile-conversion studies [reputable_press]

   Locator

   NYT archive 1964-10-25; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Shipbuilding_and_Drydock_Company; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Alaska_(CB-1) citing Garzke & Dulin p.187

   Finding type

   vessel_history

   Finding

   Postwar disposition detail for this hull: in reserve at the Bayonne, N.J. naval supply depot berthing 1946-1960 (DANFS); two 1958 Bureau of Ships feasibility studies for conversion of Alaska and Guam to guided-missile cruisers were rejected as too costly ($160M and $82M figures per secondary literature), so the hull was never modernized; sold 30 June 1960 to the Lipsett Division of Luria Brothers and broken up at the former Federal Shipbuilding yard on the Hackensack River at Kearny, N.J. - the site documented by NYT as the Lipsett shipbreaking yard handling up to 25 ships a year, including 'a famous warship' now and then.

   Verification

   partial

   Role

   context

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-18

   Study period

   1946-1961

   Population

   Bayonne reserve-fleet caretakers 1946-60; Lipsett/Luria shipbreaking trades, Kearny 1960-61

   Limitations

   The sale is DANFS-verified; the Kearny breaking site rests on secondary corroboration (NYT describes the Lipsett yard generally; the Federal-yard ship list naming this hull is secondary), and the BuShips conversion-study figures come from published secondary literature (Garzke & Dulin, p.187) - the underlying studies are archival (NARA RG-19). Nothing in this row documents asbestos; that the hull carried her unmodified WWII-era fit to the breakers is consistent with, but does not itself prove, retained era materials. No scrapping hazmat or materials disclosure was located.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-alaska-cb1-02

3. [3]U.S. Navy, Bureau of Ships Technical Manual, NAVSHIPS 250-000, Chapter 39 'Thermal Insulation' (1960) + NavSource CB-1 spec block (150,000 SHP; G.E. geared turbines; 4 screws) + Wikipedia/Friedman-derived boiler count (8 Babcock & Wilcox) [other_primary]

   Locator

   NAVSHIPS 250-000 ch. 39 (scan via Garlock bankruptcy repository); navsource.org/archives/04/1201/040201.htm spec block; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Alaska_(CB-1) citing Friedman 1984

   Finding type

   asbestos_application

   Finding

   Era inference: Alaska-class construction (8 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 4 General Electric geared steam turbines, 150,000 shp, 4 screws, 33 kt - the largest cruiser propulsion plant of its era) in 1941-44 at New York Shipbuilding, Camden falls squarely in the documented Navy asbestos-insulation era; the 1960 BuShips Technical Manual insulation chapter enumerates the era-standard suite - 85%-magnesia and amosite pipe covering, asbestos felt, chrysotile cloth/tape lagging, asbestos millboard, finishing cement, molded block. Documented disturbance periods for this hull: Philadelphia Navy Yard post-shakedown alterations (1944), Hunter's Point availability (January 1945), and the Boston Naval Shipyard inactivation availability (December 1945-February 1946).

   Verification

   inferred

   Role

   supporting

   Documentation level

   class_or_era

   Accessed

   2026-09-18

   Study period

   1941-1947

   Population

   New York Shipbuilding construction trades 1941-44; Philadelphia NY and Hunter's Point availability trades 1944-45; Boston NSY trades 1945-46; crew 1944-47

   Limitations

   Class/era specification and yard-period inference only - no ship-specific asbestos record exists for this hull (ev-06, ev-07); this row must not be read as establishing that asbestos products were or remained aboard. Does not quantify material; removed- vs. retained-material scope at each documented availability is undocumented.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-alaska-cb1-03

4. [4]Fleischer WE, Viles FJ Jr, Gade RL, Drinker P, 'A Health Survey of Pipe Covering Operations in Constructing Naval Vessels,' J. Ind. Hyg. Toxicol. 28:9-16 (Jan 1946), PMID 21016030 [other_primary]

   Locator

   PubMed record PMID 21016030; abstract via Occup. Environ. Med. 3(3):196; full-text scan circulating in litigation repositories

   Finding type

   gov_survey

   Finding

   Contemporaneous federal-era industrial-hygiene survey (conducted during this hull's 1941-44 build window): X-ray examination of 1,074 pipe coverers at two Government navy yards and two Navy contract yards, with dust counts and chemical analysis; the study records that 'an important ingredient of pipe covering material used on U.S. Navy vessels is amosite' asbestos, and that 'much asbestos cloth and asbestos cement were likewise used.' It documents pipe-covering operations aboard vessels under construction as among the dustiest work - establishing that asbestos insulation work was standard Navy-vessel construction practice in both government and contract yards at the time this hull was built.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   context

   Documentation level

   class_or_era

   Accessed

   2026-09-18

   Study period

   survey fieldwork ~1944-45; published January 1946

   Population

   Navy-yard and contract-yard pipe coverers, WWII construction era

   Limitations

   Era documentation only - the surveyed yards are anonymized (A-D) and neither New York Shipbuilding nor this hull is named; the study does not establish materials aboard CB-1. The study's 'not a dangerous occupation' conclusion is itself documented as deeply flawed in later literature (doi:10.1177/10482911261446696) - the row is cited for its materials observations, not its risk conclusion.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-alaska-cb1-04

5. [5]Atlas shipyard dataset, 'new-york-shipbuilding' record (Camden, N.J.; documented asbestos products: Pabco Six-Ply Super Caltemp block ~15% chrysotile, Ehret 85% magnesia insulation, Johns-Manville Transite panels 10-30% asbestos, asbestos gaskets and packing, asbestos-coated welding rods 5-15% chrysotile, ebonized asbestos lumber, wire insulation 75-85% chrysotile, felt insulation 5-50%) - the builder yard of this hull [other_primary]

   Locator

   shipyards.json 'new-york-shipbuilding' record - asbestos_products_documented field and evidence array

   Finding type

   asbestos_application

   Finding

   Builder-yard documentation: the yard that built this hull (New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, N.J., 1941-44) is documented in the Atlas shipyard dataset with an enumerated wartime-era asbestos product suite - block and magnesia pipe/boiler insulation, Transite cement panels, gaskets and packing, asbestos-coated welding rods, ebonized asbestos lumber, wire insulation, and felt insulation - plus worker-cohort asbestos-disease study entries. Wartime contract-yard construction of Navy combatants is the documented context of this hull's build.

   Verification

   partial

   Role

   context

   Documentation level

   class_or_era

   Accessed

   2026-09-18

   Study period

   1941-1944

   Population

   New York Shipbuilding construction trades 1941-44

   Limitations

   Yard-level documentation, not a hull record - the dataset's product entries describe materials documented at the yard across its operating era, not the bill of materials for CB-1, and the dataset's own rows carry 'verify against original study' limitations; this row must not be read as a ship-specific finding. Does not establish what was installed aboard this hull or in what quantity.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-alaska-cb1-05

6. [6]Batch-96 litigation sweep (this record): CourtListener API v4 and HTML search attempts + verbatim text search of five retrieved N.D. Cal. asbestos complaint documents (gov.uscourts.cand.192004, .197119, .199308, .204620, .204934) and web-index litigation searches [court_record]

   Locator

   search_ledger rows sl-uss-alaska-cb1-04 through sl-uss-alaska-cb1-07

   Finding type

   historical_record

   Finding

   No qualifying asbestos litigation naming this hull was located: a fresh CourtListener API query ('USS Alaska' / 'CB-1') was throttled (HTTP 429, 125/day shared quota) and the HTML search returned HTTP 403, so the sweep ran through the available workaround - verbatim text search of five retrieved N.D. Cal. asbestos complaint documents containing vessel rosters - which returned no reference to 'Alaska' or 'CB-1' (one 'Alaska' hit was a witness's residence, not the ship; three of the five documents do name USS vessels, confirming the sweep would catch a hull reference). Web-index litigation searches returned only non-citable law-firm/aggregator vessel-list pages on which the ship appears.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   negative_finding

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-18

   Study period

   2026-09-18

   Limitations

   Absence of a located pleading or opinion is not proof none exists - the CourtListener API and HTML search were blocked this session (shared daily quota), the five-docket RECAP roster check covers only indexed Northern District of California complaints, and state-court pleadings are outside coverage. 'Alaska' is a high-collision name (the state; USS Alaska SSBN-732, an unrelated submarine). The ship's presence on marketing vessel lists is noted for awareness only and is not citable evidence. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-alaska-cb1-06

7. [7]Batch-96 search ledger (this record): DANFS/NHHC (live + Wayback + ibiblio), Naval Vessel Register, NavSource, NHHC photo library (ibiblio OnlineLibrary mirror), PubMed, ACM-survey/abatement/hazmat web sweep, litigation sources in ev-06 [other_primary]

   Locator

   search_ledger rows sl-uss-alaska-cb1-01 through sl-uss-alaska-cb1-13

   Finding type

   historical_record

   Finding

   No ship-specific asbestos documentation of any kind was located for USS Alaska (CB-1): no hull ACM survey, abatement contract, materials schedule, scrapping hazmat disclosure, NVR entry (disposed 1960 - pre-1987 disposals are outside live-register coverage), museum record, or litigation record naming this hull was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). Ship-specific asbestos documentation status: UNKNOWN; assessment is class/era and builder-yard inference only (ev-03, ev-04, ev-05).

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   negative_finding

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-18

   Study period

   2026-09-18

   Limitations

   Absence of a located public record is not proof none exists. The hull was scrapped 1960-61, before modern ACM survey practice, and no scrapping-era materials disclosure was located; 1941-44 builder records (Independence Seaport Museum New York Shipbuilding collection) and NARA RG-19/BuShips files are the unpursued archival leads. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-alaska-cb1-07