USS AMCU-9

Evidence

11 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-11).

1. [1]NavSource Naval History, Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive, 'AMCU-9 ex-LCI(L)-409' page (volunteer-maintained Navy-corroborated archive; controlling secondary chronology in the absence of a DANFS entry) [other_primary]

   Locator

   NavSource AMCU-9 page, chronology block and spec block; call sign Nan-Jig-William-Victor

   Finding type

   vessel_history

   Finding

   NavSource chronology for this hull: laid down 15 January 1944 by the George Lawley and Sons Corp., Neponset, MA; launched 20 January 1944; commissioned USS LCI(L)-409, 25 January 1944 under LTJG J. P. Gilligan, USN; assigned to the European Theater, participating in the invasion of Normandy 6-25 June 1944 (landed Co. E, 115th Infantry on Omaha Beach) and the invasion of Southern France 15 August-16 September 1944; reclassified Coastal Minesweeper (Underwater Locator), AMCU-9, 10 March 1945; decommissioned July 1946 at San Francisco, CA; transferred to the War Shipping Administration October 1947; LCI(L)-409 earned two battle stars for WWII service; registered 1950 to Sundfelt Equipment Co., Inc. of Seattle, WA as the freighter SR 9; abandoned 1953, fate unknown. Page states explicitly: 'There is no DANFS History currently available for AMCU-9.'

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   supporting

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-23

   Study period

   1944-1953

   Population

   George Lawley & Sons construction trades, Neponset, MA (1944); wartime crew (spec block 23 as-built / 41 as AMCU); embarked troops up to 188 capacity

   Limitations

   NavSource is an unofficial but Navy-corroborated photo-archive site and is the most complete single chronology for this unnamed hull; no DANFS entry exists to control it (page states none available; expected NHHC URL pattern returns 404). The chronology's 'Transferred to the Maritime Commission for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet' line appears out of sequence (printed before the March 1945 AMCU-9 line though the layup is a 1946-47 event) - noted in ev-05, not corrected silently. Establishes identity, dates, and duty type only; no asbestos, materials, or hull-condition content.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-01

2. [2]George S. Lawley & Sons yard production table (navalmarinearchive.com mirror of shipbuildinghistory data) + uboat.net Allied Warships record 21451 + NavSource photo captions (1st Naval District / yard photos) [other_primary]

   Locator

   Lawley yard table row hull 612 / O.N. 257612; https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/21451.html; NavSource AMCU-9 photo captions 1-4

   Finding type

   vessel_history

   Finding

   Builder-yard corroboration: the George S. Lawley & Sons (Neponset, MA) production table carries this hull as 'LCI(L) 409,' US Navy, landing craft, 216 GT, 158 ft, delivered 25 January 1944, U.S. Official Number 257612 (yard-hull-number cell blank for this row), disposition 'Later AMCU 9, sold 1949 as S R 9, abandoned 1953.' uboat.net's Allied Warships record independently corroborates: built by George Lawley & Sons, Neponset, MA; ordered 9 March 1943; laid down 15 January 1944; launched 20 January 1944; commissioned 25 January 1944; 'Reclassified as AMCU-9 (Coastal Minesweeper Underwater Locator) on 10 March 1945.' NavSource photo captions document the hull on Lawley's ways No. 2 on 18 January 1944 (two days before launch) beside sisters LCI(L)-408 and LCI(L)-410, and with LCI(L)-410 returning to Boston Navy Yard in late 1944 (1st Naval District photo).

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   supporting

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-23

   Study period

   1943-1944; dispositions 1945-1953

   Population

   George Lawley & Sons construction trades, Neponset, MA (1943-1944)

   Limitations

   Two independent secondary compilations plus photographic captions agree on builder, dates, and yard identity - the photographs (yard ways; Boston Navy Yard return) are primary-source images hosted on NavSource. The yard table's 'sold 1949' vs NavSource's 'registered 1950' civilian dates and the Sound Reduction vs Sundfelt owner-name variants are logged in ev-05 rather than reconciled. A third-party book-derived build list (American Amphibious Gunboats) omits 409 from its Lawley LCI(L) range while listing 408 and 412 - its own compiler warns of gaps; the photographic evidence controls. No asbestos content in any of these sources.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-02

3. [3]USS LCI(L)-409 commanding officer's after-action report, Omaha Beach, Western Task Force, June 1944 (transcribed excerpt; host site dday-overlord.com, retrieved via Internet Archive Wayback capture 20241204094422; underlying document in NARA WWII action-report records) [other_primary]

   Locator

   Wayback capture of the dday-overlord LCI(L)-409 after-action-report page - the page carries the report's recommendations/observations section only

   Finding type

   vessel_history

   Finding

   Primary document (partial transcription): the commanding officer's after-action report for the Omaha Beach operation ('Amphibious Operations, Invasion of Northern France, Western Task Force, June 1944; From: Commanding Officer USS LCI(L) 409 (OMAHA BEACH)') records: troops had been aboard from 31 May until 6 June 1944 - over five days when the assault was postponed one day ('It is recommended that all assault troops be embarked at as late a date as possible'); no beach markings or marked channel through obstacles were seen, one person waving a 'Queen' flag used as a guide by this vessel and LCI(L)-410 ('we fortunately picked an area free of obstacles'); and loaded LCTs and small boats standing off the beach blocked the run in from the line of departure, requiring the craft to weave through to gain the shore.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   supporting

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-23

   Study period

   1944-05-31 to 1944-06-25

   Population

   Wartime crew; embarked U.S. Army troops (Co. E, 115th Infantry, per NavSource) 31 May - 6 June 1944

   Limitations

   Genuine primary Navy document but only a partial transcription (the report's recommendations section); the full action report - narrative, casualties, damage - was not retrieved (NARA RG 38 action reports are the identified path, ev-11). Hosted on a non-official history site; content is verbatim report text, cited as the underlying Navy record, not as the host site's scholarship. Confirms the Omaha Beach operation and embarkation timeline only; no asbestos, materials, or hull-condition content.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-03

4. [4]NavSource AMCU-9 page (GE/BuShips sound-testing chronology line, decommissioning) + uswarships.jounin.jp AMCU tabulation (struck/transfer dates) + NavSource AMCU-10/DANFS sibling comparison for conversion-yard pattern [other_primary]

   Locator

   NavSource chronology lines (reclassification, sound testing, decommissioning, transfer); https://uswarships.jounin.jp/amcu.htm AMCU-9 table row; sibling DANFS lci-l-513 conversion detail per batch-1641 record

   Finding type

   vessel_history

   Finding

   AMCU-9 employment and disposal: NavSource records the 10 March 1945 reclassification to Coastal Minesweeper (Underwater Locator) and documents the hull's actual locator-mission work - she 'embarked General Electric employees and Bureau of Ships officers from 1 July - 27 August 1945, for underwater sound testing experiments off Block Island, RI and Niantic Bay, CT.' The jounin.jp AMCU tabulation (secondary, NavSource-derived format) adds: struck 23 June 1947; transferred to the Maritime Commission and entered into the National Defense Reserve Fleet 8 October 1947. The conversion yard is not documented by any source reviewed; the hull was photographed returning to Boston Navy Yard in late 1944 (1st Naval District photo) and sister AMCU-10's DANFS entry records her own conversion performed by builder George Lawley & Sons - whether AMCU-9 was likewise converted at Lawley or at Boston Navy Yard is plausible but undocumented.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   supporting

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-23

   Study period

   1945-1947

   Population

   GE and Bureau of Ships personnel embarked Jul-Aug 1945; wartime/early-postwar crew (spec block 41 in 1945 configuration); decommissioning and NDRF layup personnel 1946-47

   Limitations

   The GE/BuShips sound-testing episode is the only documented operational employment under the AMCU designation - consistent with the underwater-locator mission (locating mines/obstacles by detection gear rather than sweeping) but experimental, not operational mine-clearing duty. The Aug 1945 - Jul 1946 interval (including any Pacific/Japan deployment like sister AMCU-7's documented Kobe-to-San Francisco return) is undocumented for this hull. Struck date is single-sourced from a Japanese-language secondary tabulation; conversion yard is undocumented - inference to Lawley or Boston NY is explicitly not claimed. No asbestos content.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-04

5. [5]Cross-source reconciliation: NavSource AMCU-9 page vs jounin.jp AMCU tabulation vs Naval Cover Museum AMCU-9 wiki vs Lawley yard table vs HAER AK-52 (28 Feb 1949 reclassification context) vs sibling record uss-amcu-10-amcu10 (batch-1641, identical LSIL-alias adjudication) [other_primary]

   Locator

   Each discrepancy keyed to its source line as quoted in finding_value; HAER AK-52 p. 14 (28 Feb 1949 LSIL reclassification); Naval Cover Museum navalcovermuseum.org/wiki/AMCU_9

   Finding type

   historical_record

   Finding

   Source discrepancies documented and carried without silent resolution. (1) LSIL-409 alias: the batch-supplied consolidation alias is not corroborated and is very likely inapplicable - the fleet-wide LCI(L)-to-LSIL reclassification took effect 28 February 1949 (HAER AK-52), but this hull was struck 23 June 1947 and transferred to Maritime Commission custody 8 October 1947; nothing shows the LSIL designation ever applied to her (the same false-alias finding was adjudicated identically in sibling record uss-amcu-10-amcu10). Retained in aliases for search consolidation only. (2) Disposal-agency wording: NavSource reads 'transferred to the War Shipping Administration October 1947' while the jounin.jp tabulation reads Maritime Commission, 8 October 1947, into NDRF - WSA's ship-disposal functions had passed to MarCom, so the MarCom/NDRF reading is the more precise; carried as reported per source. (3) Civilian chain: NavSource 'registered in 1950 to Sundfelt Equipment Co., Inc. of Seattle' vs Naval Cover Museum 'acquired 1949 by Sound Reduction Co. of Seattle ... acquired 1950 by Skilak Packing Co. of Edmonds, WA' vs Lawley yard table 'sold 1949 as S R 9' - variants may describe successive owners; unreconciled. (4) NavSource's 'Transferred to the Maritime Commission for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet' line is printed out of chronological sequence (before the March 1945 reclassification line) - treated as a formatting quirk, not a separate event. (5) Complement variance: NavSource spec block '23' as-built reads low against class-standard figures (~24-41 across sibling records); carried per-source.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   correction

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-23

   Study period

   1944-1953 (source discrepancies); analyzed 2026-09-23

   Limitations

   Correction/analysis row reconciling conflicting framings across semi-official and secondary sources; asserts no resolution beyond what each source states. NavSource remains the controlling chronology where sources differ; the LSIL-409 rejection follows the sibling-record precedent and the documented custody timeline. None of these items bears on asbestos.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-05

6. [6]NavSource Coastal Minesweeper (Underwater Locator) / Coastal Minehunter (AMCU/MHC) index + NavSource AMCU-7 page photo captions + HAER AK-52 (1952-53 series counts) + jounin.jp AMCU tabulation (10 Mar 1945 series reclassification date) [other_primary]

   Locator

   NavSource AMCU index class-group blocks and program notes; NavSource AMCU-7 page (11040701-04 captions); HAER AK-52 pp. 14-15 footnote 41; jounin.jp amcu.htm series rows

   Finding type

   historical_record

   Finding

   Program context for the AMCU-9 designation: NavSource's AMCU/MHC index states that Minesweepers, Coastal (Underwater Locator) 'were designed to locate mines and other underwater obstacles, rather than to sweep them'; that of the 50 AMCUs that existed, all except one (purpose-built Bittern, AMCU-43) were conversions of other craft; and that all AMCUs remaining on the Naval Vessel Register were reclassified Coastal Minehunters (MHC) on 7 February 1955 - an event this hull predates (out of Navy custody 1947). The index groups hulls AMCU-7 through AMCU-11 as the AMCU-7 class - the five ex-LCI(L)s of the 1945 conversion series (AMCU-7 ex-LCI(L)-589, AMCU-8 ex-LCI(L)-400, AMCU-9 ex-LCI(L)-409, AMCU-10 ex-LCI(L)-513, AMCU-11/Blackbird ex-LCI(L)-515), all reclassified 10 March 1945 per the jounin.jp tabulation - distinct from the 1952-53 program (25 LCI(L)s slated, 15 recommissioned, 8 cancelled, bird names assigned 7 March 1952) documented in HAER AK-52. Sister-hull precedent for employment: AMCU-7's NavSource photo captions document her on post-conversion sea trials near New London in March 1945 and entering San Francisco Bay 1 April 1946 after a 45-day convoy passage from Kobe, Japan - the 1945-series AMCUs deployed to post-surrender Japanese waters.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   context

   Documentation level

   class_or_era

   Accessed

   2026-09-23

   Study period

   1945-1947 (this hull's series); 1952-1955 (later series, context)

   Population

   1945-series AMCU crews; Japanese-waters post-surrender mine-locating forces (class context)

   Limitations

   Program/class-level documentation: establishes what the AMCU designation meant and the 1945-series group this hull belongs to, but does not document this hull's conversion work, equipment fit, or post-August-1945 employment. Sister AMCU-7's Japan deployment is class context only - whether AMCU-9 made the same deployment is undocumented and not claimed. HAER AK-52's figures describe the later 1952-53 series, not this hull's series. No asbestos content.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-06

7. [7]Rushworth, Denis H., "The Navy and Asbestos Thermal Insulation," Naval Engineers Journal 117(2):35-48 (2005) [other_primary]

   Locator

   Abstract verified in full via EPA HERO record 3584926 (hero.epa.gov), 2026-09-23

   Finding type

   asbestos_application

   Finding

   Peer-reviewed engineering-society scholarship documents that asbestos was once used in U.S. Navy shipboard pipe and machinery thermal insulation and in many other shipboard products; that plaintiffs in Navy asbestos litigation include many exposed while serving in Navy ships built during and following WWII; and that, being dry, friable, and easily accessible, shipboard thermal insulation was the most likely source of their Navy asbestos exposures. The article's scope covers the general Navy-wide practice and period spanning this hull's January 1944 construction and March 1945 AMCU conversion era.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   supporting

   Documentation level

   class_or_era

   Accessed

   2026-09-23

   Study period

   1940s-1970s era documented; article published 2005

   Population

   U.S. Navy shipyard workers and shipboard crews, WWII through post-WWII era (class/era context)

   Limitations

   Fleet-wide, program-level engineering-history scholarship verified at abstract level this session - does not name this hull, its class, or the LCI(L)-to-AMCU program. This vessel is a diesel small craft with no boilers or steam plant, so the article's steam-plant/boiler-insulation content is less directly analogous than for a steam-powered hull; the applicable class-era content is limited to general pipe/machinery insulation, gaskets, and packing. Does not establish installation, quantity, present-day presence, individual exposure, or causation aboard this hull.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-07

8. [8]Corn, Jacqueline Karnell, and Jennifer Starr, "Historical perspective on asbestos: Policies and protective measures in World War II shipbuilding," American Journal of Industrial Medicine 11(3):359-373 (1987) [other_primary]

   Locator

   Full abstract verified via NCBI eutils efetch (PMID 3555021); DOI 10.1002/ajim.4700110311; PubMed web page itself is cookie-gated for automated fetch

   Finding type

   asbestos_application

   Finding

   Peer-reviewed historical study documents that asbestos was used extensively as a fireproofing and insulating material in U.S. shipbuilding during World War II - the era and wartime construction program under which this 1944 George Lawley & Sons hull was built - that WWII industrial expansion drove an unprecedented rise in the amount of asbestos utilized, and that asbestos diseases later manifested among thousands of shipyard workers and others exposed in the 1940s and the postwar period.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   context

   Documentation level

   class_or_era

   Accessed

   2026-09-23

   Study period

   1940s era documented; article published 1987

   Population

   WWII shipyard workers and ship crews (class/era context)

   Limitations

   Program/era-level documentation only; does not name this vessel, its class, the Lawley yard, or the LCI(L)-to-AMCU program, and does not establish quantity, location, presence, individual exposure, or causation. Wartime-commercial-yard construction is within the article's documented era scope, but that is context, not ship-proven content.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-08

9. [9]CourtListener API v4 (courtlistener.com), opinion (type=o) and RECAP docket (type=r) searches via the authenticated fleet helper [court_record]

   Locator

   See search_ledger rows sl-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-08 through sl-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-10 for individual query strings and result counts

   Finding type

   litigation_documented

   Finding

   No qualifying asbestos litigation naming this hull was located in the completed coverage. CourtListener API v4 searches run 2026-09-23 through the authenticated fleet helper: opinion search for the primary designation "AMCU-9" returned 0 results (HTTP 200, verified). Attempted but not completed: the designation-variant opinion query ("LCI(L)-409" OR "LCI-409" OR "LCIL-409" OR "LSIL-409" OR "LCI(L) 409") and the RECAP docket query - both remained blocked by the fleet-wide request-pacing budget across four retries spanning the session (shared ~114/hr quota under heavy parallel-batch contention, not a daily-cap event). Coverage is therefore partial and is logged honestly rather than retried into a ban. Name-collision risk for this hull is low (numeric designations only, never named).

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   negative_finding

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-09-23

   Study period

   Search conducted 2026-09-23

   Limitations

   Coverage is partial: the sole completed opinion query returned no results, but the designation-variant opinion query and all docket-level (RECAP) queries remained blocked by fleet pacing at session end - an unpublished or unindexed filing naming a variant designation cannot be ruled out. Even at full coverage, absence of a located litigation record does not establish absence of exposure or of unfiled, settled, or unpublished trial-level claims; CourtListener's opinion and RECAP indexes are not a complete record of all filed cases. Does not establish or defeat any exposure claim, causation, or legal eligibility for any individual.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-09

10. [10]Batch-1679 search ledger (this record): NavSource (AMCU-9 page, AMCU/MHC index, AMCU-7/410 sibling pages); Lawley yard table; uboat.net; jounin.jp; dday-overlord action-report transcription via Wayback; HAER AK-52; NPS/NRHP check; MARAD vessel history DB; NARA asbestos-records research guide; CourtListener searches [other_primary]

    Locator

    search_ledger rows sl-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-01 through sl-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-17

    Finding type

    historical_record

    Finding

    No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located under any of this hull's designations (LCI(L)-409, AMCU-9, SR 9): no DANFS entry exists (NavSource states none is available for AMCU-9; expected NHHC URL pattern returns 404), no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, GAO report, NPS/NRHP listing, museum disclosure, or docketed case was found in the public official sources searched (NavSource AMCU page and AMCU/MHC index, Lawley yard table, uboat.net, jounin.jp AMCU tabulation, transcribed action report, HAER AK-52, NPS/NRHP check, MARAD vessel-history database check, NARA finding-aid guides, and CourtListener - see search_ledger). The hull was never preserved - abandoned in 1953, fate unknown - so it has none of the museum-disclosure or hull-survey documentation seen for preserved vessels in this dataset.

    Verification

    verified

    Role

    negative_finding

    Documentation level

    ship_specific

    Accessed

    2026-09-23

    Study period

    2026-09-23

    Limitations

    Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard the hull during its 1944-1947 Navy custody - WWII-era Navy small-craft construction is class/era-consistent with asbestos-containing insulation, gaskets, packing, and tape (see ev-07, ev-08). Does not establish presence or absence aboard this specific hull, quantity, condition, individual exposure, or causation.

    Atlas source

    true

    Evidence ID

    ev-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-10

11. [11]National Archives and Records Administration, "Researching Asbestos aboard US Naval Vessel up through 1961" research guide [other_primary]

    Locator

    Guide sections: Record Group 19 (Bureau of Ships, incl. private-yard QM filing designation), Record Group 38 (Chief of Naval Operations), Research Methodology, Navy Specifications Approach

    Finding type

    historical_record

    Finding

    Archival leads (not retrieved - research-room visit or reproduction order required; no spend authorized): NARA's own published research guide for Navy asbestos records directs researchers first to Record Group 19 (Bureau of Ships) - General, Confidential, and Secret Correspondence (1940-1961) filed by hull designation (this hull would be filed as "LCI(L)-409" or "AMCU-9"; the Lawley commercial yard would be filed under QM/George Lawley & Sons), General/Ship Information Books, Specification and Standard Development Case Files, and Engineering Drawings including Navy filing code S39 for insulation/lagging - and secondarily to RG 38 (Chief of Naval Operations records, including the WWII action-report series that holds the full LCI(L)-409 Omaha Beach report of which only a partial transcription was retrieved, and Board of Inspection and Survey material-condition reports relevant to the March 1945 AMCU conversion), RG 143 (Bureau of Supplies and Accounts specification indices), and RG 24 (Bureau of Naval Personnel deck logs and muster rolls). NARA's guide states it 'is staffed to provide basic referencing services and cannot perform the research required for this topic.'

    Verification

    unverified

    Role

    archival_lead

    Documentation level

    context_only

    Accessed

    2026-09-23

    Study period

    Guide reflects current NARA finding aids; underlying records 1940-1961

    Limitations

    Record-group and finding-aid mapping only; no box-level or correspondence-level retrieval was performed for this hull. Whether any hull-specific asbestos-relevant correspondence, conversion specification, or InsSurv report exists for LCI(L)-409/AMCU-9 in RG 19, RG 38, or the other named groups is unknown until surveyed in person. Nothing in this row is itself an asbestos finding.

    Atlas source

    true

    Evidence ID

    ev-uss-amcu-9-amcu9-11