Evidence
7 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-7).
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[1]research packet lc-packet.md (2 sources cited) [other_primary]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-belet-de599-pkt-lc-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, 'Belet (APD-109) 1945-1963' (Mary Pat Walker; updated Robert J. Cressman, 21 October 2021), Naval History and Heritage Command - verbatim via Wayback capture 2024-05-24; live NHHC page returns 404 [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- NHHC DANFS web entry 'belet-i.html', full narrative text + spec block
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: laid down at Hingham, Mass., by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Co. as DE-599; launched 3 March 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Eleanor J. Belet (widow of the namesake, Master Technical Sergeant Robert Alfred Belet, USMC, killed on Guadalcanal 12 September 1942, posthumous Silver Star); reclassified high-speed transport and redesignated APD-109 on 17 July 1944; commissioned 15 June 1945, Lt. Cmdr. Albert P. Merrill in command. Spec block: displacement 2,130 (limiting); 306' x 37' x 12'7"; 23.6 knots (trial); complement 204; troops 162; 1 x 5-inch, 6 x 40mm, 6 x 20mm; class Crosley. Service: Guantanamo Bay shakedown July 1945; Norfolk to San Diego 27 August; Transport Division 111, Amphibious Forces Pacific; Saipan troop-shuttle from 17 September; relieved USCGC Taney (WPG-37) as port director ship at Wakayama, Japan, 11 October; ordered stateside December; departed Pearl Harbor 8 January 1946 carrying returning servicemen to San Diego; cleared San Diego 22 January; Panama Canal transit (departed Canal Zone 2 February); repairs at Boston Navy Yard; Green Cove Springs 18 March for inactivation; decommissioned 22 May 1946 and mothballed with the Atlantic Reserve Fleet; stricken from the Navy List 12 December 1963; sold to Mexico (H-3, later California B-3); ran aground on the Bahia Peninsula 16 January 1972, judged unsalvageable, hulk broke up on the rocks.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-29
- Study period
- 1943-1972
- Population
- Bethlehem-Hingham construction trades 1943-45; wartime crew (complement 204) plus embarked troops (162) 1945-46
- Limitations
- DANFS documents identity, construction, and service history - not materials or asbestos content. The entry's laid-down date ('29 March 1943') conflicts with NavSource and class references (26 January 1944) and is inconsistent with the same yard's documented DE production sequence (Hingham Rudderow hulls DE-579-589 laid October-December 1943); the conflict is carried in gaps and the NavSource date is used. The earlier print DANFS entry differs on the 1946 return port (San Francisco vs San Diego) and Wakayama arrival (13 vs 11 October) - carried in gaps. Live NHHC page returns 404; Wayback capture cited.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-belet-de599-01
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[3]NavSource Amphibious Photo Archive, USS Belet (APD-109) - construction chronology, APD specification block, commanding-officer list, and Mexican-service photo captions (wreck aground south of Rosarito Beach, 17 January 1972); plus Destroyer History Foundation, WWII destroyer-escort classes overview (destroyerhistory.org/de/classes/) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource APD-109 page, chronology + 'APD Specifications' propulsion block + photo captions
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource record for this hull: laid down 26 January 1944 as Belet (DE-599), a Rudderow-class destroyer escort, at Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard Co., Hingham MA; launched 3 March 1944; redesignated Crosley-class high-speed transport 17 July 1944; commissioned 15 June 1945 (LCDR Albert P. Merrill, USNR); occupation service in the Far East 11 October-25 December 1945; decommissioned 22 May 1946 at Green Cove Springs, FL; Atlantic Reserve Fleet; struck from the Naval Register and transferred to Mexico 12 December 1963 as ARM California (B-3); ran aground off Baja California, destroyed 16 January 1972. Propulsion block: two Babcock & Wilcox 'D' Express-type boilers, 435 psi/750 deg F; two General Electric turbines (turbo-electric drive); two shafts, 12,000 shp.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-29
- Study period
- 1944-1972
- Population
- Construction trades 1944-45; commissioned crew 1945-46
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer photo archive citing official records - corroborating but not itself a primary federal source; the laid-down date it supplies (26 January 1944) is carried because the NHHC date is chronologically inconsistent (see gaps). Namesake photo credited to NHHC NH 65806. Contains no asbestos information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-belet-de599-02
-
[4]Destroyer History Foundation, 'World War II destroyer escort classes' (TEV plant description) + NavSource APD specification block + Atlas shipyard dataset, bethlehem-shipbuilding record [other_primary]
- Locator
- destroyerhistory.org DE-classes page (TEV paragraph); NavSource APD-109 spec block; shipyards.json record 'bethlehem-shipbuilding'
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/yard inference: this hull was completed 1944-45 as a Crosley-class APD conversion of a Rudderow-class (TEV) destroyer escort - the General Electric steam turbo-electric plant of 12,000 shp used across the Buckley and Rudderow classes and in all wartime APD conversions. A steam plant of this era would have carried period-standard asbestos insulation, lagging, gaskets, packing, fireproofing, and deck coverings. Builder Bethlehem-Hingham was a Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation yard; the Atlas shipyard record for the Bethlehem corporation (tier 3) documents asbestos-containing products in Bethlehem yard operations of the era, including pipe covering, block insulation, gaskets and packing, fireproofing, asbestos cloth and cement, and asbestos-coated welding rods.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-29
- Study period
- 1944-1946
- Population
- Bethlehem-Hingham construction trades 1944-45; crew 1945-46
- Limitations
- Class/era and builder-yard inference only - no ship-specific finding is claimed; nothing names DE-599/APD-109. Does not establish that asbestos was installed aboard this hull, in what products, or in what quantity. NARA General Information Books (RG 19) and deck logs (RG 24) remain unretrieved archival leads.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-belet-de599-03
-
[5]Oral History Interview with Benjamin Oliver Severns, Machinist's Mate 2/c USNR (service record lists DE-216 Enright, DD-858 Fred T. Berry, APD-109 USS Belet), National Museum of the Pacific War / Admiral Nimitz Foundation, Fredericksburg TX, 15 September 2006 - transcript via Portal to Texas History (UNT Libraries), title page + p.16 [museum_official]
- Locator
- metapth1606243 title page (service list: 'APD 109 USS Belet') and transcript p.16 (transfer + mail-run narrative)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Ship-specific crew record: a machinist's mate interviewed in a museum oral-history program recounts transferring aboard this hull late in its single commission - 'My points were up so I got transferred to APD 109 USS Belet' - and describes late-1945 post-occupation transport/mail runs to the Marshall Islands (Enewetak) and Hawaii before his 1946 discharge. Corroborates the DANFS narrative and anchors a crew member (engineering-rating petty officer population) to this specific hull.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-29
- Study period
- 1945-1946 (service); 2006 (interview)
- Population
- USS Belet crew 1945-46 (machinist's mate, engine-room rating population)
- Limitations
- Oral history transcript contains no asbestos information - it documents that a crew member served aboard this hull and what the ship did, nothing about materials, conditions below decks, or exposure. Transcript pages are OCR-extracted text; wording may contain transcription errors.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-belet-de599-04
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[6]CourtListener API v4 sweep (authenticated, fleet-paced), opinions (type=o) and RECAP dockets (type=r): "USS Belet", "Belet", "APD-109", "DE-599" [court_record]
- Locator
- CourtListener search API results, queries run 2026-09-29
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- No qualifying asbestos litigation naming this hull located. "USS Belet": 0 opinions, 0 dockets. "APD-109": 0 opinions, 0 dockets. "DE-599": 11 opinion hits and 62 dockets / 90 documents - all docket-entry-number collisions ('DE 599' / 'DE# 599' document references inside unrelated criminal, labor, bankruptcy, and commercial cases), none referencing a vessel, none asbestos. "Belet" (bare name): 5 opinions and 146 dockets / 354 documents - all surname collisions (Marriage of Belet divorce; Beletsky habeas; Jeanpierre family bankruptcies; Belet Investments LLC creditor filings; Jacques Belet affidavits; Belet v. 3M Co., a plaintiff-surname case consolidated in the 3M Combat Arms earplug MDL-2885, N.D. Fla. - product liability, not asbestos, not this vessel). Zero hits referencing the ship.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-29
- Study period
- index coverage through 2026-09-29
- Limitations
- Sweep covers CourtListener's opinion corpus and RECAP docket index - it does not cover state-court systems outside RECAP, unindexed MDL-875 complaint-era vessel lists, or PACER documents behind paywall. A short-commission (11-month) hull is a weak litigation target; absence of docketed litigation is a real finding but not proof no claim was ever filed.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-belet-de599-05
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[7]Batch-4412 search ledger (this record): NHHC DANFS (live 404; Wayback capture); NavSource archive page; CourtListener API v4 opinion + RECAP docket sweeps by exact name and hull number; NARA catalog (JS-gated, not retrievable); NVR (pre-1987 disposals not indexed) [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-belet-de599-01 through sl-uss-belet-de599-11
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, material inventory, preservation/disposal hazmat disclosure, or docketed case naming USS Belet / DE-599 / APD-109 was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). The hull's eleven-month commission, 1946-63 reserve lay-up, 1963 foreign transfer, and 1972 total-loss wrecking removed every documentation pathway that produces ship-specific asbestos findings.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-29
- Study period
- 2026-09-29
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - era-consistent materials were almost certainly present at build, but no ship-specific source establishes that, quantity, or exposure of any individual. Does not establish or defeat any legal claim.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-belet-de599-06