Evidence
10 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-10).
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[1]research packet crew-df-packet.md (6 sources cited) [other_primary]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: PHANTOM — real identity: none — hull was never named
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-ata-226-ata226-pkt-crew-df-packet-md
-
[2]Shipscribe.com (Stephen S. Roberts), 'USS ATA-174 Class (later WATEREE)' page - construction and disposition tables, class notes, and per-hull ship notes, compiled from Navy records [other_primary]
- Locator
- usnaux.shipscribe.com/ATA/ATA174.html - construction table row (ATA 226, Levingston SB Orange, keel 31 Mar 45, launch 12 May 45, no commissioning), disposition table row (strike 17 Apr 46, MC disposal 3 Jul 47, MA sale 2 Jul 47), ship note 226 (accepted/delivered 21 Mar 46; MC sale to French Republic as RHINOCEROS; condemned 26 Dec 81; hulk Q-626; sunk as target off Toulon 3 May 82), class notes (20 Nov 44 Lend-Lease batch; 31 Oct 45 CNO accept-but-do-not-commission directive)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Shipscribe (Stephen S. Roberts) compilation of Navy construction/disposition records for the ATA-174 class: construction table lists ATA-226 ordered 20 Nov 44, builder 'Levingston SB, Orange' (Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange TX), keel 31 Mar 45, launch 12 May 45, no commissioning. Disposition table lists decommission '--' (never commissioned), struck 17 Apr 46, disposal 3 Jul 47 to the Maritime Commission, MA sale 2 Jul 47. Ship note: 'Accepted and delivered 21 Mar 46. Sold (delivered) by MC to the French Republic as RHINOCEROS. Condemned 26 Dec 81, hulk Q-626, sunk as target off Toulon 3 May 82.' Class notes: on 18 Nov 44 CNO approved construction of 20 additional tugs of this class (ATA 219-38) for Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union; contract awarded two days later; officially assigned to the USSR by the Munitions Assignment Committee on 17 or 24 Jan 45; the assignment was retracted (10 Jul 45 for ATA 229-33) as the war drew to a close; contracts for ATA 229-33 were cancelled in August 1945; and on 31 Oct 45 (14 Sep 45 for ATA 234-238) CNO directed that the remaining 15 tugs be accepted from the builders upon completion but, being surplus to Navy needs, not be commissioned - they would be placed in caretaker status and turned over to WSA for disposal after removal of equipment.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-26
- Study period
- 1944-1982
- Population
- Levingston Shipbuilding construction workforce (Orange TX, 1945-46)
- Limitations
- Specialist compilation of official Navy/MC records, not itself a primary document - but the most granular located source for the ordered/keel/launch dates, the 21 Mar 1946 acceptance, the 17 Apr 1946 strike, and the MC-to-France disposal chain. The ATA 219-238 batch framing (Lend-Lease to USSR, then surplus) explains why this hull never commissioned. Contains no asbestos information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ata-226-ata226-01
-
[3]NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive - ATA-226, navsource.net/archives/09/38/38226.htm (page updated 27 October 2023) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource ATA-226 page - chronology block, spec block, and photo captions (093822605-093822610: Toulon 6 Mar 1952; JFS 1953-54 via Marius Bar; Toulon 1 Oct 1980)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource Online Service Ship Photo Archive entry for ATA-226: 'Laid down, 8 March 1945, by the Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX. Launched, 13 April 1945. Canceled by the War Shipping Administration in 1946. Struck from the Naval Register, 17 April 1946. Sold in 1947 to France, commissioned Remorqueur de Haute Mer RHM Rhinoceros (A668). Final Disposition, broken up for scrap in March 1981.' Spec block: 835 t. light / 1,360 t. full, 143' x 33'10" x 13'2", 12 kts, one 3"/50 DP + two single 20mm AA, complement 5 officers + 40 enlisted, 1,200 Bbls diesel, two GM 12-278A diesel-electric engines, single Fairbanks-Morse main reduction gears, two 60 kW 120V DC ship's service generators, single propeller 1,200 shp. Photos document the hull in French service: RHM Rhinoceros (A668) underway near Toulon 6 March 1952 (contrib. Jacques Druel); circa 1953 (photo courtesy Marius Bar from the 1953-54 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships); and underway 1 October 1980 near Toulon (Jacques Druel).
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-26
- Study period
- 1945-1981
- Population
- RHM Rhinoceros French crew (1952-1980 photo documentation)
- Limitations
- Volunteer-maintained secondary compilation, not an official record - corroborated against Shipscribe where they overlap. Internal conflicts: keel/launch dates printed here (8 Mar / 13 Apr 45) are the ATA-225 dates, repeated - see correction row ev-03; 'Canceled by the War Shipping Administration in 1946' mis-frames the documented sequence (Navy acceptance 21 Mar 46, strike 17 Apr 46, WSA/MC disposal) - WSA's role was disposal, not cancellation; spec block conflicts with Shipscribe class block (835 lt/1,360 fl vs 534 lt/835 max; 12 kts/1,200 shp vs 13 kts/1,500 hp; a Fairbanks-Morse reduction-gear line on a diesel-electric plant); 'broken up for scrap March 1981' conflicts with Shipscribe's condemned 26 Dec 81 / sunk as target 3 May 82. Strike date 17 Apr 1946 and the France sale agree with Shipscribe. Sole located photo source for the French-service identity. Contains no asbestos information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ata-226-ata226-02
-
[4]Shipscribe ATA-174 class construction table (ATA-225 row: keel 8 Mar 45, launch 13 Apr 45; ATA-226 row: keel 31 Mar 45, launch 12 May 45) vs NavSource ATA-226 and ATA-226-adjacent ATA-225 pages (both print 8 Mar / 13 Apr 45) [other_primary]
- Locator
- Shipscribe construction table rows ATA-225 and ATA-226; navsource.net/archives/09/38/38225.htm (ATA-225) and .../38226.htm (ATA-226) - identical dates on both NavSource pages
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Construction-date correction: NavSource's ATA-226 page prints 'Laid down, 8 March 1945 ... Launched, 13 April 1945' - but NavSource's own ATA-225 page prints the identical dates 'Laid down, 8 March 1945 ... Launched, 13 April 1945,' and Shipscribe's NARA-compiled construction table assigns 8 Mar/13 Apr 45 to ATA-225 and 31 Mar/12 May 45 to ATA-226. NavSource's ATA-226 dates are an off-by-one row slip repeating ATA-225's dates; the Shipscribe dates (keel 31 Mar 1945, launch 12 May 1945) are carried in this record.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- correction
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-26
- Study period
- 1945
- Population
- Levingston Shipbuilding construction workforce (Orange TX, spring 1945)
- Limitations
- Resolves a propagating secondary-source error: NavSource's ATA-226 dates duplicate its ATA-225 entry word-for-word while Shipscribe's sequential Levingston production table (keels roughly fortnightly through the ATA 219-230 run) places ATA-226 at 31 Mar/12 May 45. Shipscribe carried as the record dates. No asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ata-226-ata226-03
-
[5]alabordache.fr 'Espace Marine' unit fiche, RHM Rhinoceros (presentation.php); postenavalemilitaire.com postal-history thread 'RHINOCEROS (1947/1981)' [other_primary]
- Locator
- alabordache fiche fields (admission 20.04.1946, retrait 30.10.1980, base ports, missions, CO roster, propulsion); postenavalemilitaire.com/t3483-rhinoceros-1947-1981 (July 1947 entry into service; Indochina 1949/1951; Foch tow 1959; Mers-el-Kébir dock Aug 1965; desarme 21 Nov 1981)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- French-service record: veteran-community fiche records RHM Rhinoceros (A668) as an ex-U.S. Navy ATA-type ocean tug incorporated into the Marine nationale - 'Date admission au service actif: 20.04.1946' (three days after the U.S. strike of 17 Apr 1946, though the formal MC sale was delivered 2 Jul 1947), 'Date retrait service actif: 30.10.1980'; built 1945 at 'Levingstone - Orange - Texas'; commanding-officer roster begins OPE Jacques Cosquer 20/4/46-23/3/48 (and runs through O1E Aime Cellier at 30/10/80); base port Brest until 1975, then Toulon; missions listed as alert and assistance, interport and long-distance towing, target and ammunition-barge towing, antipollution, training for the Ecole de manoeuvre and Ecole des Mousses, and zone surveillance; French-era fit 3 x 20mm Oerlikon, crew 1 officer + 11 officiers mariniers + 27 quartier-maitres/matelots; diesel-electric plant '2 GMC 12-278A couplés sur deux excitatrices ALLIS-CHALMERS' driving two AC propulsion motors; 16,800 nm at 8 kts range; ~50,000 propulsion running-hours accumulated by decommissioning. A French postal-history thread records Indochina missions in 1949 and 1951, towing the carrier Foch's hull from Saint-Nazaire in 1959, the Mers-el-Kébir dock tow to Toulon in August 1965, 'mis en service Juillet 1947,' and 'desarme 21 novembre 1981.'
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-26
- Study period
- 1946-1981
- Population
- French Navy crews of RHM Rhinoceros, ~39 per complement, 1946/47-1980
- Limitations
- French veteran/community compilations, not official SHD records - the only located sources for the 34-year French career. Date tensions are logged in gaps: French active-service entry 20 Apr 1946 (alabordache) precedes the formal MC sale delivery 2 Jul 1947 (Shipscribe) by fifteen months - custody-before-title is plausible postwar practice but unverified; withdrawal dates differ (30 Oct 1980 retrait vs 21 Nov 1981 desarme vs 26 Dec 1981 condemned vs NavSource 'broken up March 1981'); the NavSource photo of Rhinoceros underway 1 Oct 1980 supports the October-1980 withdrawal. None of these sources contains any asbestos, materials, or condition statement.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ata-226-ata226-04
-
[6]U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Special List #44 (SL-44) ship-number index to WWII deck logs, archives.gov [other_primary]
- Locator
- SL-44 ship-number index PDF, ATA block - runs listed for ATA-121..ATA-125, ATA-146, ATA-170..ATA-211, ATA-214..ATA-217; no ATA-226 entry
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- NARA Special List 44 (ship-number index to World War II deck logs) carries no run for ATA-226: the ATA block indexes ATA-121 through ATA-217 (commissioned hulls only), and ATA-226 is absent - consistent with the never-commissioned record and meaning no deck logs exist for this hull to retrieve.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-26
- Study period
- 1945-1946
- Limitations
- The absence of an SL-44 run independently corroborates that ATA-226 never commissioned (commissioned siblings ATA-200 and ATA-214 do have runs). It also forecloses the deck-log research avenue - no U.S. operational log population exists for this hull. Not an asbestos finding.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ata-226-ata226-05
-
[7]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
- Abstract and article, AJIM 11(3):359-373
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Peer-reviewed historical scholarship documents that asbestos was used extensively as a fireproofing and insulating material in U.S. shipbuilding during WWII - the era and program under which this steel-hulled tug was built at Levingston Shipbuilding, Orange TX, in 1945. The documented GM diesel-electric plant (two 12-278A diesels, electric propulsion motors, single screw) carries no boilers or steam mains, so the boiler-room and steam-line lagging class that dominates steam-ship exposure does not apply; plausible era applications are confined to machinery fittings (exhaust-system lagging, gaskets, packing, brake linings on towing gear, electrical and bulkhead insulation).
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-26
- Study period
- 1940s era documented; article 1987
- Population
- WWII shipyard workers and ship crews (class context); Levingston Shipbuilding trades 1945-46
- Limitations
- Program/era-level scholarly documentation of asbestos use in WWII shipbuilding generally; does not name this vessel or class and does not establish that asbestos was or remains aboard this hull, nor quantity, location, condition, exposure, or causation. The diesel-electric propulsion profile narrows plausible applications relative to steam-driven hulls. The hull was expended as a target in 1982 - no surveyable structure exists.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ata-226-ata226-06
-
[8]CourtListener API v4 search: '"ATA-226"' type=o (0 results) and type=r (0 results); '"USS ATA-226"' type=o (0) and type=r (0); '"Rhinoceros" AND tug' type=o (0); '"Rhinoceros"' type=o (76 results, all non-vessel collisions) [court_record]
- Locator
- Opinion and docket result sets reviewed; 'Rhinoceros' collision sample: Rhinoceros Ventures Group, Inc. v. TransCanada Keystone Pipeline L.P. (Tex. App. 2012-11-29); Ivory Education Institute v. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife (Cal. App. 2018); Friends of Animals v. Ashe (D.D.C. 2016)
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- CourtListener sweep (authenticated API v4, 2026-09-26): '"ATA-226"' returned 0 opinion hits and 0 docket hits - the hull designation appears nowhere in the opinion or RECAP docket indexes; '"USS ATA-226"' returned 0 opinion hits and 0 docket hits; '"Rhinoceros" AND tug' returned 0 opinion hits; bare '"Rhinoceros"' returned 76 opinion hits, all name collisions (Rhinoceros Ventures Group pipeline litigation, ivory/conservation cases such as Ivory Education Institute v. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife and Friends of Animals v. Ashe, and other animal/trademark references) - none names the French tug, the U.S. hull, or any vessel, and none is asbestos litigation.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-26
- Study period
- 2026-09-26
- Limitations
- No qualifying asbestos litigation - indeed no litigation of any kind - located naming this hull, its U.S. designation, or its French name in the searched indexes. 'No qualifying litigation found' is a finding about the searched indexes, not proof no suit was ever filed: unindexed or non-public complaints (and French-law actions, which CourtListener does not cover) cannot be ruled out. The bare-name 'Rhinoceros' hits were individually classified as animal/company collisions; the hull-number legs returned literally zero hits on both indexes, an unusually clean sweep.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ata-226-ata226-07
-
[9]NARA, 'Researching Asbestos aboard U.S. Naval Vessels up through 1961' guided topic (RG 19 S39/S48 series guidance); MARAD Vessel History Database negative result; SHD fonds reference for Marine nationale unit files [other_primary]
- Locator
- NARA guided-topic page (Beginning Research; Cartographic Branch S39/S48 lines); vesselhistory.marad.dot.gov ShipList keyword searches ATA-226/RHINOCEROS/RHINOC = 'No results found' (control query SAMOSET verified the search works)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Archival leads (not retrieved - require research-room or reproduction order; no spend authorized): NARA's asbestos research guide points to Bureau of Ships RG 19 correspondence and drawings - especially S39 (insulation and lagging) and S48 (piping) series - as the ship-by-ship path for Navy asbestos questions, applicable to this hull's 1945 construction file if it survives; Maritime Commission disposal records for the July 1947 sale to France may exist in MC/WCC records at NARA (the MARAD Vessel History Database holds no card - the hull never entered NDRF custody); Service historique de la Defense (SHD) holds the French-side service file for RHM Rhinoceros (A668).
- Verification
- unverified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-09-26
- Study period
- 1944-1982 records
- Limitations
- Record-group and repository mapping only - no box-level retrieval performed; existence of asbestos-specific documents for this hull is unknown until surveyed in person. The NARA guide identifies possible record series, not a located ATA-226 drawing or any asbestos finding. Nothing in this row is an asbestos finding.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ata-226-ata226-08
-
[10]Batch-2900 search ledger (this record): NHHC DANFS (live + Wayback CDX); Shipscribe; NavSource (ATA-226 and ATA-225 pages); NARA SL-44; NVR; MARAD Vessel History Database; CourtListener API v4; Atlas shipyards.json dataset; class-profile worktrees; French veteran-community fiches [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-ata-226-ata226-01 through sl-uss-ata-226-ata226-12
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, environmental filing, court finding, or docketed case naming ATA-226 / USS ATA-226 / RHM Rhinoceros / A668 was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). No individual DANFS entry exists for the hull (unnamed, never-commissioned). The hull was sunk as a target off Toulon 3 May 1982 (per Shipscribe; NavSource records scrapping March 1981) - either way the hull no longer exists, so no surveyable structure remains and no later abatement or donation record can arise.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-26
- Study period
- 2026-09-26
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - a 1945-built steel hull is era-consistent with asbestos-containing machinery fittings even accounting for the lighter diesel-electric insulation load. The hull was disposed of (sunk or scrapped) 1981-82, so no extant structure exists. Does not establish presence or absence; does not establish or defeat any exposure claim or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ata-226-ata226-09