Evidence
7 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-7).
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[1]DANFS, Chaffee (DE-230) (namesake, builder, dates, specs, service narrative, sale; verbatim NHHC text via 24 May 2024 Wayback capture - live NHHC page serves 404 under both current URL patterns) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- Wayback capture 2024-05-24 of NHHC DANFS 'Chaffee (DE-230)' entry - spec block + full service narrative
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull, a Rudderow-class (TEV turbo-electric) destroyer escort: specs dp. 1,450; l. 306'; b. 36'10"; dr. 9'8"; s. 24 k.; cpl. 186; a. 2 5", 3 21" tt., 8 dcp., 1 dcp.(hh.), 2 dct. Namesake Ensign Davis Elliott Chaffee, Bombing Squadron 5 aboard Yorktown (CV-5), killed in action Battle of the Coral Sea 8 May 1942, posthumous Navy Cross. Launched 27 November 1943 by Charleston Navy Yard (sponsor Mrs. L. C. Chaffee); commissioned 9 May 1944 (Lt. Comdr. A. C. Jones, USNR). East-coast submarine-training target ship and escort-crew training ship; cleared Bayonne, N.J., 14 October 1944; Hollandia 21 November; Leyte landing-craft escort (17 December 1944); San Fabian Attack Force reinforcement run to Lingayen (arrived 21 January 1945); Japanese aerial torpedo passed through her bow without exploding 23 January; temporary repairs by 2 February; Philippine convoy escort and Mindanao-operation patrols to 29 April; Davao reinforcement-landing guard (May); Borneo training at Morotai (19 June) and Balikpapan reinforcement escort (3 July); Morotai-Hollandia-Philippines convoy escort, Subic Bay base-establishment work, Okinawa troop-ship escort (September); cleared Subic Bay for home 10 January 1946; arrived San Francisco 5 February; decommissioned 15 April 1946; sold 29 June 1948. Two WWII battle stars.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1948
- Population
- Charleston Navy Yard construction and fitting-out workforce 1943-44; wartime crew (design complement 186 per DANFS)
- Limitations
- DANFS documents identity, builder, service history, and sale date - not materials or asbestos content, and it gives no striking date (NavSource's 17 August 1946 strike is carried separately). Live NHHC page returns 404 under both current URL patterns (documented NHHC link-rot pattern); the Wayback capture of the live NHHC page is cited. DANFS does not name the 1948 buyer; the California Maritime Academy attribution rests on NavSource corroborated by uboat.net/NavalCoverMuseum.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chaffee-de230-01
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[2]War History of the U.S.S. CHAFFEE (DE 230), DE230/TN/A12-1 Serial 6 (mb), 21 January 1946 - ship-submitted war history, Commanding Officer to the Secretary of the Navy under AlPac 202 of 14 September 1945, period 9 May 1944 to 10 January 1946 (digitized at NavSource) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource DE-230 page, 'official War History' image item 06230wh.jpg (multi-page letter, DE230/TN/A12-1 Serial 6)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Primary ship-generated war history for this hull: fitting-out at Charleston Navy Yard 9-31 May 1944 (assigned to Escort Division 74); Bermuda shakedown June 1944; east-coast escort and training work - screening the fleet oiler Cowanesque (AO-79) to Norfolk, the battleship Missouri (BB-63) during 6 August 1944 exercises, and the escort carriers Wake Island (CVE-65) and Mission Bay (CVE-59); delivery of a captured German acoustic torpedo to the Naval Torpedo Testing Station, Solomons, Md.; towing the collision-damaged SC-642 into New London (rammed the submerged periscope of USS Martin SS-202); submarine-training target ship under ComSubLant; upkeep availability at the Boston Navy Yard Annex 19-26 September 1944; departed Bayonne, N.J., 14 October 1944 screening two AKAs and an AO to the Canal Zone - Cristobal 21 October, canal transit 23 October, Galapagos 28 October, Bora Bora 7 November, Humboldt Bay/Hollandia 21 November; New Guinea and Philippine operations through 1945 including the 23 January 1945 Lingayen torpedo pass-through (torpedo propeller recovered from the bow; temporary repairs by USS Cable ARS-19, permanent repairs alongside USS Medusa AR-1 at Leyte through 25 February); Borneo reinforcement convoy to Balikpapan arriving 3 July 1945; post-war Hollandia-Manila transport escorts, Subic Bay patrols with the submarine base, and troopship AP-147 escort to Okinawa; the 5 November 1945 grounding in a zero-visibility thunderstorm on a reef in San Bernardino Strait off Port Gubat, Luzon; three days aground; towed to Guiuan Roadstead and drydocked in ARD-20 - keel buckled, main motor thrown out of line in #1 engine room; five weeks of drydock work with starboard propeller removed entirely, port tail shaft and screw replaced, strengthening beams welded to the keel; satisfactory 19 December 1945 trial at 18 knots on one screw; departed 10 January 1946 for Pearl Harbor via Eniwetok under demobilization manning shortages. Signed by commanding officer Lcdr. R. M. Thompson, USNR (who had relieved Lcdr. A. C. Jones on 22 October 1945).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1944-1946
- Population
- Crew 1944-1946; ARD-20 and Guiuan Roadstead repair workforce November-December 1945
- Limitations
- Primary operational document but contains no material or asbestos statements - the ARD-20 drydock repair description establishes hull and machinery work (keel realignment, shafting, structural stiffening), not insulation handling; any insulation disturbance during that repair is inference only and is not asserted here. Image-level document read in-session; minor passages partially legible.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chaffee-de230-02
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[3]NavSource Naval History, Destroyer Escort Photo Index DE-230 (building/operational data compiled from official records, NHHC photo series, spec block; stricken/sale dates corroborated by uboat.net Allied Warships and NavalCoverMuseum) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource DE-230 page: spec block, 'Building and Operational Data' chronology, commanding-officer list, photo captions incl. ARD-20 drydock series; uboat.net ship/1606; navalcovermuseum.org CHAFFEE DE 230
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource compiled record for this hull: keel laid 26 August 1943 at the Charleston Navy Yard; launched and christened 27 November 1943 (sponsor Mrs. L. C. Chaffee); commissioned 9 May 1944; decommissioned 15 April 1946 at the Naval Supply Center, Oakland, Cal., after 1 year 11 months of service; struck from the NVR 17 August 1946; sold 29 June 1948 to the California Maritime Academy as training vessel. TEV spec block: 2 CE boilers, G.E. turbines with electric drive, 12,000 shp, 2 screws, 24 kts; complement listed 12 officers/192 enlisted. Commanding officers: Lcdr. Arthur Collins Jones USNR (9 May 1944-22 October 1945), Lcdr. Ralph M. Thompson USNR (to 15 April 1946). uboat.net and NavalCoverMuseum independently read 'stricken 17 August 1946' and 'sold 29 June 1948 to the California Maritime Academy'.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1948
- Population
- Charleston Navy Yard construction workforce 1943-44; wartime and postwar crew; NSC Oakland decommissioning workforce 1946; California Maritime Academy staff/students 1948-onward; later shipbreakers
- Limitations
- Secondary compilations citing official records - not themselves official records. The 17 August 1946 strike date and the 29 June 1948 CMA sale rest on these compilations (DANFS gives the sale date only); the CMA-era scrap disposal tail rests on academy-history secondary text and the final scrap date is undocumented. Complement 12/192 conflicts with the DANFS spec block (186); decommission location reads Naval Supply Center, Oakland, where DANFS reads San Francisco - both carried in gaps.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chaffee-de230-03
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[4]DANFS/NavSource propulsion specs (TEV turbo-electric: 2 CE boilers, GE turbines, electric drive, 12,000 shp) + Atlas shipyard dataset, Charleston Naval Shipyard record (yard tier 2: litigation-documented asbestos gaskets, packing, and pump/valve thermal insulation; OSHA asbestos-standard citation 1988; Whalen and Twidwell verdicts) [other_primary]
- Locator
- DANFS/NavSource specs block; shipyards.json record 'charleston-naval-shipyard' (evidence_tier 2; products_documented periods ~1971-mid-1980s; ev-charleston-naval-shipyard-06/-07 verdicts; OSHA inspection 100361849)
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/yard inference: a Rudderow-class (TEV) destroyer escort built 1943-44 with a superheated-steam turbo-electric plant would have carried period-standard asbestos in boiler and steam-line insulation/lagging, turbine lagging, machinery gaskets and packing, and compartment fire insulation. Builder Charleston Navy Yard is documented at yard level (Atlas tier 2) with asbestos gaskets, packing, and thermal insulation in litigation and an OSHA asbestos citation - but the yard's structured product periods (~1971-mid-1980s) post-date this hull's 1943-44 construction, so the yard record does not itself reach the build window.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Population
- Charleston Navy Yard construction and fitting-out trades 1943-44; crew 1944-46
- Limitations
- Class/era and builder-yard inference only - not a ship-specific finding. The yard's documented asbestos-product window does not cover this hull's construction or fitting-out period; no product is named for DE-230, no quantity is established, and no individual exposure is shown. Era inference stands on the 1943-44 steam-escort design, not on the yard record's later-era findings.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chaffee-de230-04
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[5]Navy insulation-spec suite identified as controlling era documents in destroyer-escort asbestos litigation: Bureau of Ships Manual ch.39 Thermal Insulation NAVSHIPS 250-000(39) (24 Aug 1945); Navy Department Specification 32F3a 'Felt, Insulating, Asbestos' (15 Oct 1945); BuEng General Specifications for Machinery S39-1 (3 Feb 1939) - per Jack v. Borg-Warner Morse Tec (W.D. Wash. 2:17-cv-00537) exhibit-list recital, as cataloged in the Atlas john-c-butler-class class profile [other_primary]
- Locator
- john-c-butler-class.class.json class_notes + evidence rows citing Jack v. Borg-Warner Morse Tec exhibit list
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- The era's controlling Navy insulation specifications - including an explicitly asbestos-named felt spec - are identified in DE-class litigation exhibit lists and cataloged in this dataset's John C. Butler-class profile. These are the correct next-pull targets for class-level asbestos specification documentation applicable to the Rudderow (TEV) class, a sister steam-escort design of the same build era.
- Verification
- unverified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1939-1945 (spec dates)
- Limitations
- Identified secondhand via class-level research and a litigation exhibit list for a different DE class; the underlying spec documents were not retrieved in this session, and nothing in this row is specific to DE-230. Retrieval pending - treat as research lead only.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chaffee-de230-05
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[6]NARA Record Group 181, Sixth Naval District Ship Commissioning Files 1942-1945, National Archives at Atlanta (NAID 2694599) - finding aid lists DE-230 USS CHAFFEE; plus NARA RG24 deck logs and RG19 General Information Books per-vessel material specifications (unexamined); LCDL Charleston Naval Shipyard Photographs lcdl:420, official Navy photo 'US Navy Yard, SC. 15 July 1944. USS Chaffee (DE 230), Bow View' (Patriots Point collection) [other_primary]
- Locator
- archives.gov/atlanta RG181-2694599 finding aid table (DE-230 row); lcdl.library.cofc.edu catalog lcdl:420; NARA catalog API unresponsive in-session
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Confirmed ship-specific archival holdings for this hull: NARA Atlanta's RG181 Sixth Naval District 'Ship Commissioning Files, 1942-1945' finding aid lists DE-230 USS CHAFFEE (commissioning correspondence, invitations, instructions for Charleston Navy Yard vessels); the Lowcountry Digital Library catalogs an official U.S. Navy yard photograph of this hull dated 15 July 1944. DE-230 deck logs (RG24) were not located in digitized form (archive.org search negative), and the per-vessel RG19 General Information Book is unexamined - the catalog API returned no usable JSON in-session.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Limitations
- Holding-level confirmation only - the RG181 commissioning file and the LCDL photograph were located but not reviewed for material content; neither is known to address asbestos. Deck-log and GIB existence is presumed from standard RG24/RG19 holdings for commissioned vessels, not confirmed per-hull.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chaffee-de230-06
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[7]Batch-4150 search ledger (this record): NHHC DANFS (live 404 both URL patterns; verbatim text via Wayback capture 2024-05-24); NavSource DE-230 index incl. ship-submitted war history; CourtListener API v4 opinion index; RECAP docket index; NARA catalog/finding aids; archive.org collections; Atlas shipyards.json; LCDL [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-chaffee-de230-01 through sl-uss-chaffee-de230-09
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located for DE-230: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, museum hazmat disclosure (hulk scrapped after 1948), or litigation naming this vessel was found in the public sources searched. CourtListener: exact-phrase 'USS Chaffee' opinions = 0 results; broad 'Chaffee' opinions = 4,024 hits, all reviewed first-page results are surname/place-name collisions (Doerr v. Chaffee Neb.; Chaffee ex rel. Latham v. Jackson Pub. Sch. Dist. Miss.; Place v. Chaffee-Sardinia Fire Co.; People v. Chaffee N.Y.) with zero Navy/asbestos/vessel terms among reviewed hits; 'DE-230' opinions = 27 hits, all tokenization noise (docket/pin-cite fragments in unrelated cases - Papadopoulos v. Sidi, Roberts v. Gordy, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Boone v. Mountainmade). No hit names the vessel, the hull number as a vessel, or asbestos exposure aboard. See search_ledger.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 2026-09-28
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - it reflects that no ship-specific documentation exists in the sources searched. CourtListener review covered first-page results of each query; deep-tail hits among 4,024 opinion results were not individually opened - residual low-relevance collisions possible, none reviewed named the vessel. RECAP docket sweep status recorded in search_ledger.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chaffee-de230-07
