Evidence
8 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-8).
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[1]research packet ev-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-bristol-dd453-pkt-ev-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, Bristol I (DD-453) (namesake biography, builder, dates, service narrative, loss, battle stars; verbatim NHHC page via Wayback capture 2024-11-27 - live history.navy.mil page serves 404; hazegray.org transcription corroborates) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry 'Bristol I (DD-453)', specifications block + service narrative (NHHC page dated 2 December 2005)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: first Bristol, named for Rear Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol (1868-1939). Spec block: dp. 1,630; 348'4" x 36'1" x 17'6"; 35 kt; cpl. 276; a. 5x5", 5x21" TT.; cl. Gleaves. 'Launched 25 July 1940 by Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Kearny, N.J.; sponsored by Mrs. Powell Clayton; and commissioned 22 October 1941, Lieutenant Commander C. C. Wood in command' - the 1940 launch year is a transcription/typo internally impossible against the December 1940 keel (carried in gaps). Service: first year patrol/convoy escort, North Atlantic trans-Atlantic voyages to Ireland; 24 October 1942 first voyage to North Africa for the Fedhala, French Morocco landings (8-17 November); returned late November, operated out of Norfolk until 14 January 1943, then Mediterranean (one Canal Zone trip April 1943) exclusively until loss; Sicilian invasion 9 July-17 August 1943 and Salerno landings 9-21 September; 11 September 1943 rescued 70 survivors of torpedoed Rowan (DD-405). The Wilkes (DD-441) DANFS entry independently records this hull illuminating and depth-charging a surfaced submarine during the 11 November 1942 Fedhala-area night actions. Loss: 'At 0430 on 13 October 1943, while escorting a convoy to Oran, Algeria, Bristol was struck by an enemy torpedo on the port side at the forward engine room, causing the ship to break in half. Only one explosion occurred. No fires resulted, but steam, electrical power, and communications were lost and the ship had to be abandoned. Eight minutes after the explosion the after section sank and four minutes later the bow section went down. Bristol suffered the loss of 52 of her crew. The survivors were rescued by Trippe (DD-403) and Wainwright (DD-419).' Three battle stars for WWII.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1940-1943
- Population
- Federal Shipbuilding construction trades 1940-41; wartime crew (complement 276 per spec; 293 aboard at loss)
- Limitations
- DANFS documents service history and specifications, not materials or asbestos content. Launch-year '1940' is an error propagated from the BuShips damage report (all other sources read 25 July 1941). No stricken/register date is given. Mirror/Wayback transcription cited because the live NHHC page returns 404.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-bristol-dd453-01
-
[3]NavSource Destroyer Photo Index, USS Bristol (DD-453) - class/building data block, fate line, commanding-officers list, photo captions (Wayback capture 2025-01-27; direct fetch blocked); corroborated by destroyerhistory.org Bristol monograph and uboat.net Allied Warships DD-453 entry (ship 1743) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource DD-453 'Operational and Building Data' + 'Fate' blocks, commanding-officers list, and photo captions; destroyerhistory.org/benson-gleavesclass/ussbristol/; uboat.net/allies/warships/1743.html
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource record for this hull: CLASS - GLEAVES as built; displacement 2,395 tons full; 348'4" oa x 36'1" x 13'2" max; armament 4x5"/38AA, 6x0.5" MG, 10x21" tt (2x5); machinery 50,000 shp, Westinghouse geared turbines, 2 screws; 35 kt; range 6,500 nm at 12 kt; crew 208. Building data: 'Built by Federal Shipbuilding, Kearny NJ (YN 194) Laid down 02 December 1940. Launched 25 July 1941. Commissioned 22 October 1941.' Fate: 'Torpedoed and sunk by U-371 off Algiers 13 October 1943. 52 of her crew were lost.' CO list: LCDR Chester Clark Wood, USNA 1924 (22 Oct 1941 - 22 Sep 1942); CDR John Albert Glick, USNA 1926 (22 Sep 1942 - 13 Oct 1943). Photo captions document NARA photos 19-N-25955/56/57 (31 October 1941, soon after completion); refit after delivery at New York Navy Yard (caption date 10 January 1942); off New York Navy Yard 8 January 1943 (destroyerhistory.org caption); Casablanca harbor 1943; and the Bureau of Ships 'War Torpedo Damage Diagram and Report No. 50. USS Bristol (DD-453).' destroyerhistory.org corroborates: 'laid down 2 December 1940 with Ellyson at Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Kearny, New Jersey. The two ships were also launched together on 25 July 1941.' uboat.net corroborates U-371 (Kptlt. Waldemar Mehl) firing a GNAT (T-5) acoustic torpedo; position 37 deg 19 min N, 06 deg 19 min E, ~70 miles west-northwest of Bone; 52 dead, 241 survivors rescued by Trippe (DD-403) and Wainwright (DD-419); CO Glick among survivors; laid down 20 Dec 1940 (conflicts with NavSource/destroyerhistory 02 Dec - carried in gaps).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1940-1943
- Population
- Federal Shipbuilding construction trades 1940-41; New York Navy Yard fit-out/refit workforce 1941-43; wartime crew (~208-293 depending on source/period)
- Limitations
- Secondary compilations consistent with NVR-type data; no asbestos content documented. Direct navsource.org fetch blocked to automated tools at check time - data confirmed via Wayback capture, search index, and independent secondary sources. U-371 attribution rests on secondary compilation (uboat.net, NavSource, HyperWar ship index); DANFS itself says only 'an enemy torpedo.' No stricken/register-action line is published for this hull on the page. Laid-down date conflicts across compilations (02 vs 20 December 1940).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-bristol-dd453-02
-
[4]Bureau of Ships, 'Destroyer Report - Torpedo and Mine Damage and Loss in Action, 17 October 1941 to 7 December 1944,' War Damage Report No. 50, NAVSHIPS 50 (374), Preliminary Design Section, 1 May 1945 (verbatim transcription via HyperWar; also indexed in NHHC Online Reading Room, war-damage reports) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NAVSHIPS 50 (374) Section III, BRISTOL (DD453) narrative paras. 10-1 through 10-14 (report pp. 44-46), plates VII-VIII; summary paras. 2-12, 2-25, 2-27
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Official BuShips engineering report carries a dedicated ship narrative for this hull (Section III, USS BRISTOL (DD453), pp. 44-46, plates VII-VIII), based on the Commanding Officer's loss report (reference (a): 'C.O. BRISTOL ltr. A16-3/P6-1, Serial 00 of 26 October 1943'). The report's class header labels the design 'BRISTOL (DD453)' - BuShips's contemporaneous label for the 1941-repeat Gleaves group. Loss narrative: escorting a transport division in the western Mediterranean, patrolling at 15 knots on the convoy's port side; at 0423 a torpedo hydrophone effect heard on the port bow; about 10 seconds later a submarine torpedo detonated on the port side at about frame 93 'in way of the forward engine-room'; all propulsive and electrical power lost; 'the boilers or steam lines in the forward fireroom were damaged as personnel on deck noted steam escaping from this compartment'; the forward three main machinery compartments flooded quickly with no survivors from them; the ship sagged, broke completely in two about 4-5 minutes after the hit; after section sank about 8 minutes after the hit; bow sank at 0435, 12 minutes after; 'Of the 293 officers and men who were aboard BRISTOL at the time, 241 were saved' by TRIPPE and WAINWRIGHT; torpedo assessed as German electrically-driven T-5 acoustic type (~590 lb hexanite warhead). Report header block again prints 'Launched 25 July 1940' - same internally impossible typo as DANFS (carried in gaps).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1943 (loss); report issued 1945-05-01
- Population
- 293 officers and men aboard at loss (241 rescued, 52 lost); Federal Kearny construction trades 1940-41
- Limitations
- Documents machinery-space battle damage and the loss sequence - an engineering record, not a materials record; it names boilers and steam lines in the forward fireroom but does not identify insulation or asbestos content anywhere in the report. The '0423 +10 seconds' hit time and '25 July 1940' launch line conflict with DANFS's 0430 and with every launch-date source respectively; both discrepancies documented in gaps.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-bristol-dd453-03
-
[5]Office of Naval Intelligence, 'United States Naval Chronology, World War II,' October 1943 section (verbatim transcription via HyperWar); corroborated by U.S. Navy Memorial 'Lost at Sea' log, Bristol DD-453 entry (date lost Wednesday, October 13, 1943, 51 names) [other_primary]
- Locator
- ibiblio.org/pha/chr/chr43-10.html entry for 10/13 Wednesday; navylog.navymemorial.org/bristol
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- The official Navy chronology records: '10/13 Wed. ... United States naval vessel sunk: Destroyer BRISTOL (DD-453), by submarine torpedo, Mediterranean area, 37 d. 19' N., 06 d. 19' E.' - fixing the loss date and position. The U.S. Navy Memorial's Lost at Sea log for Bristol DD-453 carries the 13 October 1943 loss date, the U-371 attribution framing ('U-Boat Attack near Algeria'), the 52-casualty figure, rescue by Trippe (DD-403) and Wainwright (DD-419), and lists 51 sailors in the log.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1943-10-13
- Population
- 52 lost (chronology/DANFS figure); Navy Memorial log lists 51 names
- Limitations
- Fixes loss date and position only - no materials, machinery, or asbestos content. Navy Memorial log count (51 names) differs by one from the 52-lost figure carried in DANFS, WDR-50, and the Memorial's own narrative - a one-name log/roster variance, noted not reconciled.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-bristol-dd453-04
-
[6]Archival chain for this hull's loss record: C.O. Bristol letter A16-3/P6-1, Serial 00 of 26 October 1943 ('Loss Report' with surviving-officer statements - WDR-50 reference (a)); NARA RG 38 WWII action reports; NARA RG 19 Bureau of Ships design/engineering records (per-hull plan series) [other_primary]
- Locator
- WDR-50 Section III reference (a), p. 44; NavSource DD-453 photo index (BuShips damage diagram image)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- A ship-specific primary document exists for this hull: the Commanding Officer's loss report dated 26 October 1943, incorporating statements by all surviving officers, which the Bureau of Ships used as the basis of the WDR-50 Bristol narrative. That letter (A16-3/P6-1, Serial 00) sits in the Navy's WWII action-report/loss-report series (RG 38); per-hull engineering drawings and the Booklet of General Plans sit in RG 19. NavSource's photo index independently displays the report's torpedo-damage diagram for DD-453. These are the leads for any hull-level materials detail.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1943
- Population
- Surviving officers of DD-453 (statements incorporated October 1943)
- Limitations
- Archival lead only - the CO loss report and RG 19 plan files were not retrieved; a damage report documents structure and machinery damage, not necessarily insulation materials, and whether any such file itemizes asbestos-containing material is unknown until pulled. Not an asbestos finding.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-bristol-dd453-05
-
[7]Consolidated era inference - class machinery data (DANFS spec block; NavSource machinery line; BuShips Ships' Data 1945 destroyer table, shipscribe.com scan) + Atlas shipyard dataset, Federal Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Kearny record (evidence_tier 2: 1944 Owens-Illinois Industrial Health Survey; products Superex, Kaylo, Monokote, Garlock) [other_primary]
- Locator
- shipyards.json records 'federal-shipbuilding-kearny' (products 1940-1948 Superex window covers the build window) and 'brooklyn-navy-yard'; SDB1945v1 DD machinery table (No. 421 class rows)
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/design inference: DD-453 is a 1940-41 Federal Shipbuilding-built destroyer of the peak Navy asbestos era, with 4 superheated boilers and Westinghouse geared turbines of ~50,000 shp (NavSource hull line; BuShips table lists 47,000 shp for class lead DD-421 - class-range discrepancy unresolved). Typical period applications for this plant: boiler casing and fireroom insulation, steam-pipe and turbine lagging, valve/flange gaskets and packing, deck tile, accommodation insulation, fireproofing. Builder Federal Shipbuilding & Drydock, Kearny is documented at yard level in the Atlas dataset (tier 2): an Owens-Illinois Industrial Health Survey of the Kearny yard (30 Aug-2 Sep 1944, introduced as O-I interrogatory exhibit #20 in Heathman v. Owens-Corning) documents insulators cutting and fitting Johns-Manville Superex asbestos pipe covering and Kaylo boiler insulation in confined shipyard spaces; the yard record also documents W.R. Grace Monokote fireproofing and Garlock gaskets. The documented New York Navy Yard fit-out/refit visits place the hull at a second Atlas-documented yard (brooklyn-navy-yard, tier 3, Kaylo pipe insulation documented).
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1940-1943
- Population
- Federal Shipbuilding Kearny construction trades 1940-41; New York Navy Yard fit-out workforce 1941-43; crew 1941-43
- Limitations
- Class/era and builder-yard inference only - no ship-specific finding. The Kearny industrial-health survey (Aug-Sep 1944) post-dates this hull's December 1940 - October 1941 construction window by nearly three years; it documents wartime yard practice, not products installed aboard this hull. Yard-level documentation is not hull-level documentation; no quantities, no individual exposure, no product identification for DD-453.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-bristol-dd453-06
-
[8]CourtListener API v4 litigation sweep, 2026-09-27 (this record's search ledger) [court_record]
- Locator
- search_ledger sl-uss-bristol-dd453-07/08; class-f benson-gleaves-class sweep record 2026-09-16
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- No qualifying asbestos litigation located naming this hull as of 2026-09-27 - provisional. Exact-name 'USS Bristol' sweeps and 'DD-453' hull-number sweeps against the opinion and RECAP docket indexes were attempted repeatedly this session and blocked by the shared fleet pacing budget (cl-auth-search.py exit 2); the classification rests on (a) the 2026-09-16 class-profile CourtListener sweeps on 'USS Benson'/'USS Gleaves' returning zero asbestos-litigation hits, and (b) absence of any non-marketing secondary claim naming DD-453. Any future 'USS Bristol' hit requires hull attribution: Bristol II (DD-857, Sumner class, in commission 1945-1969) is the only Bristol with an asbestos-litigation-era career and is the more plausible referent for unqualified hits.
- Verification
- unverified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 2026-09-27
- Population
- n/a
- Limitations
- Negative finding is provisional: this session's own CourtListener sweeps were pacing-blocked and are logged 'pending' in the search ledger - this row must be reclassified if a later sweep surfaces a hit. 'Bristol' collides across the two hulls (DD-453, DD-857) and is also a common surname/place name; every hit requires attribution review. RECAP/opinion indexes are not exhaustive; absence of located litigation does not mean none exists.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-bristol-dd453-07