Evidence
6 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-6).
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[1]DANFS, Charles Lawrence (DE-53/APD-37) entry (namesake biography, spec block, service narrative, disposal, awards) - verbatim ibiblio/HyperWar transcription; live NHHC page returns 404, canonical URL confirmed extant in Wayback captures 2021 (https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/c/charles-lawrence.html) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry, spec block + service narrative (ibiblio/HyperWar dafs/APD/apd37.html)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: launched 16 February 1943 by Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyards, Inc., Hingham, Mass.; sponsored by Mrs. S. Lawrence; commissioned 31 May 1943, Lt. Comdr. L. S. Kintberger in command. One Norfolk-Casablanca tanker convoy 16 August-24 September 1943; then eight New York-Northern Ireland high-speed tanker convoys 13 October 1943-23 September 1944 (one tanker lost in sixteen crossings; 'Christmas Hurricane' 1943). Reclassified APD-37 on 23 October 1944 and converted to a high-speed transport in New York City. Cleared Norfolk 27 January 1945; Pearl Harbor 22 February-5 March; Ulithi 23 March; arrived off the Hagushi beaches 1 April 1945 screening 20 transports; three months patrolling off Okinawa with escort runs to the Philippines, Marianas and Carolines; escaped kamikaze attacks without injury. Post-war: covered occupation-force landings in the Japanese Inland Sea; transport Philippines-Manus; San Diego 16 December 1945; Norfolk 30 December; decommissioned 21 June 1946 in reserve at Green Cove Springs, Fla. Spec block: dp. 1,400; l. 306'; b. 36'10"; dr. 9'5"; s. 24 k.; cpl. 186; a. 3x3", 3x21" tt., 8 dcp., 1 dcp.(hh.), 2 dct.; cl. Buckley. One battle star for WWII.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-25
- Study period
- 1942-1965
- Population
- Bethlehem-Hingham construction trades 1942-43; wartime crew ~186 + embarked troops ~162 (design figures)
- Limitations
- DANFS documents identity, service history, and specifications - not materials or asbestos content. Mirror transcription cited because the live NHHC page returns 404 (standing fleet-wide link rot, per BATCH-01 report). DANFS names the conversion venue only as 'New York City'; the specific yard rests on the ship-authored history (ev-02).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-charles-lawrence-apd37-01
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[2]History of USS Charles Lawrence (DE-53/APD-37) by H.B. Cranford, UMCS(SS) USN Ret. - ship-authored war history hosted with the DANFS transcription on ibiblio/HyperWar [other_primary]
- Locator
- ibiblio/HyperWar dafs/APD/apd37-history.html, ship-narrative sections
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Ship-authored war history for this hull adding operational and yard detail beyond DANFS: fitting out at Boston Navy Yard; August 1943 anti-submarine search with USS Hopping (illuminated surfaced U-boat, attacked without observed results); Escort Division SIX composition (flagship Charles Lawrence with DE-54, DE-56, DE-154, DE-155, DE-156); March 1944 Seakay torpedoing (U-311; Reeves rescued 86) and 3 May 1944 Donnell acoustic-torpedo hit (U-765; towed to Londonderry, later IX-182); entered the Sullivan Drydock and Repair Corporation facility, Brooklyn, N.Y. on 23 October 1944 for DE-to-APD conversion, completed January 1945; sailed for Okinawa 27 March 1945 as one of eight escorts of Task Group 51.11 (20 troop transports); semicircular anti-submarine screen off Hagushi for three months; early-July 1945 tender availability/overhaul at Leyte Gulf; postwar escort with USS Griffin covering the Kure occupation-force landing in the Inland Sea; Navy Occupation Service Medal 25 September-12 October 1945.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-25
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Population
- crew 1943-46; conversion-yard trades (Sullivan Drydock, Brooklyn) Oct 1944-Jan 1945
- Limitations
- Crew-authored postwar history (single transcription, contains typo-level errors - e.g. '19456' for 1946, 'July 1944' for the 1945 Leyte availability, and a sale date conflated with the strike date); outline corroborated by DANFS, and its unique details (Sullivan Drydock conversion venue, TG 51.11, Leyte availability) are carried at partial verification. Not an asbestos or materials document.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-charles-lawrence-apd37-02
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[3]NavSource Online Amphibious Photo Archive, USS Charles Lawrence (APD-37) page + Destroyer Escort Photo Index DE-53 page - registry chronology, APD spec block, campaign table, awards, photo captions, commanding-officer list [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource APD-37 page (archives/10/04/04037.htm): chronology + 'APD Specifications' block + campaign table + awards block; DE-53 photo index (archives/06/053.htm): chronology data + photo captions incl. NY Navy Yard 1943-10-05 and 1944-01-13
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Registry chronology corroborating DANFS for this hull: laid down 1 August 1942 as Buckley-class DE-53 at Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard, Hingham MA; launched 16 February 1943; commissioned 31 May 1943 (LCDR Leon S. Kintberger); converted at New York to a Charles Lawrence-class high-speed transport; redesignated APD-37 23 October 1944; assigned TransDiv One Hundred Six (CAPT. F. W. Schmidt) for the Okinawa Gunto operation (1 April-30 June 1945); occupation service 25 September-12 October 1945; decommissioned 21 June 1946 at Green Cove Springs; laid up Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Florida Group; struck from the Naval Register 1 September 1964; sold for scrapping to Southern Scrap Material Corp., New Orleans (APD page reads 31 January 1965, removed 21 February 1966; DE index reads 17 November 1965 - conflict in gaps). Ship-specific APD spec block: 1,400 t light / 2,130 t full; 306' oa; 23.6 kt trial; complement 15 officers + 186 enlisted; troops 12 officers + 150 enlisted; 4 LCVPs; 1x5"/38, 3 twin 40mm, 8x20mm; 2 GE turbines (turbo-electric drive), 2 'D' express boilers 435 psi/750F, 12,000 shp. Photo captions document New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn presence 5 October 1943 and 13 January 1944.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-25
- Study period
- 1942-1966
- Population
- crew 15 officers + 186 enlisted; embarked troops up to 162
- Limitations
- NavSource is a private registry/photo-archive compilation - secondary, not an official source; its dates corroborate DANFS. Its internal pages conflict on the scrapping-sale date and its DE-page data line reads 'Brooklyn Navy Yard' for the conversion where the ship-authored history reads Sullivan Drydock - both conflicts carried in gaps. Establishes nothing about materials aboard.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-charles-lawrence-apd37-03
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[4]Bureau of Ships, Ships' Data, U.S. Naval Vessels, Vol. 1 (Jan 1945), DE design-group table (shipscribe.com scan) + navypedia TE-class block map (buckley-class profile, class-f worktree) [other_primary]
- Locator
- SDB1945v1 pp. 234-235 DE design-group table (groups 2-3 TE rows); navypedia us_de_te block map; buckley-class.class.json ev-buckley-class-01/-02
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Class/era design documentation: this hull is a Buckley (TE) destroyer-escort design - BuShips Ships' Data 1945 design groups 2-3: 306 ft oa, ~1,400-1,450 t standard, 2-shaft GE turbo-electric machinery 12,000 shp, 23.6 kt, two 'D' express-type boilers at 435 psi/750F superheat; navypedia's per-block boiler map assigns Foster Wheeler to the DE-51-98 block that includes DE-53. The documented 1944-45 conversion to a Charles Lawrence-class APD (Sullivan Drydock, Brooklyn; completed January 1945) is an era-typical insulation-disturbance event - troop berthing/messing added for ~162 troops, four LCVP davits, revised armament. A 1943 steam-plant vessel of this design would have carried period-standard asbestos applications: boiler insulation, steam-line lagging, turbine insulation, valve and flange gaskets, machinery packing, fireproofing, and deck coverings.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-25
- Study period
- 1942-1946
- Population
- Bethlehem-Hingham construction trades 1942-43; Sullivan Drydock conversion trades 1944-45; crew 1943-46
- Limitations
- Class/era and design inference only - not a ship-specific finding. No hull material schedule, conversion work package, or survey located (NARA RG19 General Information Books are the archival lead). Does not establish asbestos presence, quantity, or exposure aboard this hull; boiler-maker attribution is navypedia-sourced and unverified against contract documents.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-charles-lawrence-apd37-04
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[5]CourtListener API v4 (authenticated batch pipeline, cl-auth-search.py, 2026-09-25): exact-name sweeps "USS Charles Lawrence" (opinion + RECAP docket), qualified name sweeps "Charles Lawrence" asbestos / aboard-ship-vessel-Navy (opinion + docket), hull-number sweeps "APD-37" and "DE-53" asbestos [court_record]
- Locator
- CourtListener v4 search endpoint, type=o and type=r, queries as listed; results triaged 2026-09-25/26
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- Litigation sweep for this hull - no qualifying asbestos litigation located. Exact name: "USS Charles Lawrence" returned 0 opinion hits and 0 docket hits. Qualified name: "Charles Lawrence" asbestos returned 1 opinion hit - Champagne v. Celotex Corp., 599 So. 2d 1086 (La. 1992) - resolved to a name collision: the matched string is the counsel-roster sequence 'Lake Charles, Lawrence G. Pugh, III' (city + attorney name); "Charles Lawrence" aboard ship OR vessel OR Navy returned 0 opinion hits; the same qualified query returned 18 docket hits, all collisions (16 BM25 token matches on unrelated attorney/party names incl. MDL-875's JPML docket; 2 literal-phrase hits are a person party in Reliant Life Shares securities-receivership dockets, C.D. Cal. 2023). Hull numbers: "APD-37" returned 0 opinions and 4 dockets, all acronym collisions (Glover v. City of Atlanta and Sims v. Wingate - 'APD' Atlanta Police Department abbreviations; SEC v. Dubovoy; American Patent Development Corp. - 'APD' party acronym); "DE-53" asbestos returned 2 opinions (Husser v. NYC Dept. of Education, E.D.N.Y. 2015; United States v. Hardage, W.D. Okla. 1990 - PACER exhibit/docket-entry references, non-asbestos, non-vessel) and 48 dockets, all 'DE 53' document-entry cross-references, including 3 asbestos-tagged dockets (Ricks v. Armstrong Int'l 4:14-cv-00037 E.D.N.C.; Badenhoop v. ACandS 1:01-cv-00152 D. Md.; Hays v. Foster Wheeler 9:09-cv-81881 S.D. Fla.) where 'DE 53' is a docket-entry stamp, not the vessel. No opinion or docket names this hull.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-25
- Study period
- 2026-09-25/26 (sweep dates)
- Limitations
- A no-hit sweep does not prove the hull never appeared in litigation: unindexed state-court filings, non-digitized records, and docket text behind full documents fall outside coverage; the 48 DE-53 and 18 name docket hits were triaged by metadata and indexed snippet context, not full-text review of every document. Fleet pacing paused the sweep mid-session (~2h); it was waited out, not retried into a ban. Nothing here establishes or defeats an exposure claim.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-charles-lawrence-apd37-05
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[6]Batch-2426 search ledger (this record): NHHC DANFS live + ibiblio/Wayback transcription; ship-authored war history; NavSource registry pages; NVR ship-detail probe; CourtListener opinion and docket sweeps (exact name + qualified name + both hull numbers); NARA deck-log/RG19 leads; marketing-list sweep (shepardlawfirm.com, asbestos-ships.com, mesotheliomahelp.org, simmonsfirm.com name this hull - banned source class, presence only) [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-charles-lawrence-apd37-01 through sl-uss-charles-lawrence-apd37-08
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no hull ACM survey, abatement contract, conversion work package, disposal hazmat disclosure, museum record, or docketed asbestos case naming DE-53 or APD-37 was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). The hull was mothballed at Green Cove Springs 1946-1964 and scrapped 1965-66 by Southern Scrap Material(s) Co. of New Orleans - a pre-OSHA-era disposal that generated no hazmat documentation; no surveyable artifact exists.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-25
- Study period
- 2026-09-25
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - a 1943 steam-plant escort/transport is era-consistent with ACM, and nineteen-plus years of reserve lay-up plus pre-regulation scrapping left no modern documentation. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-charles-lawrence-apd37-06