Evidence
10 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-10).
-
[1]research packet ih-packet.md (1 sources cited) [other_primary]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-chase-de158-pkt-ih-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, Chase II (DE-158/APD-54) (namesake, builder, dates, service narrative, striking and sale; verbatim transcription - live NHHC page returns 404; current DANFS edition (June 2015) text identical per Tin Can Sailors destroyers.org transcription) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry, specifications block + service narrative (HyperWar/ibiblio apd54.html; destroyers.org/ships/de-158 transcription citing DANFS June 2015)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: second ship named Chase, named in honor of Admiral Jehu Valentine Chase (1869-1937, CINCUS 1930-31); launched 24 April 1943 by Norfolk Navy Yard; sponsored by Mrs. J. V. Chase; commissioned 18 July 1943, Lt. Comdr. V. B. Staadecker (Steadecker), USNR, in command. 14 September 1943-23 November 1944: six transatlantic convoys between New York/Norfolk and North African ports; 20 April 1944 approaching Bizerte drove off enemy torpedo bombers and rescued swimming survivors of three torpedoed merchantmen; 5 May 1944 joined the search for the submarine that torpedoed Fechteler (DE-157) and rescued 52 survivors. Reclassified APD-54 on 24 November 1944; conversion completed; sailed from Boston 4 February 1945; Ulithi 18 March; Okinawa diversionary group 1 April; antisubmarine screen and patrol off Okinawa until 20 May, when a kamikaze splashed 10 yards off - its two bombs ripped the hull open, flooding engine and fire rooms, steering gear jammed; towed to Kerama Retto for repairs; towed across the Pacific to San Diego arriving 11 October; decommissioned 15 January 1946; sold 13 November 1946. Two battle stars for WWII service.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Population
- Norfolk Navy Yard construction trades 1943; wartime crew (DANFS design complement 186); Boston Navy Yard conversion workforce Nov 1944-Feb 1945
- Limitations
- DANFS documents service history and specifications, not materials or asbestos content. DANFS contains no laid-down or stricken dates for this hull (16 March 1943 keel and 7 February 1946 striking are carried from NavSource/SDB). DANFS misspells sister hull Fechteler as 'Flechteler' in both transcriptions. Live NHHC page returns 404; verbatim mirror transcriptions cited.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chase-de158-01
-
[3]Bureau of Ships, Ships' Data, U.S. Naval Vessels, Vol. III (NAVSHIPS 250-012, Dec 1945), High Speed Transports (APD) roster row 26 for CHASE ex-DE158, APD-54 (shipscribe.com scan; OCR of book pp. 291-297) [other_primary]
- Locator
- SDB1945v3 APD roster, row 26 'CHASE (ex-DE158) APD 54' (book pp. 291-297 spread; shipscribe scan PDF pp. 310-316)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Contemporaneous official BuShips roster row for this hull under its later designation: 'CHASE (ex-DE158) ... APD 54' - row 26 of the APD roster. Per-hull columns: 306 ft 0 in overall, 300 ft 0 in waterline, 37 ft 0 in beam, 23.6 kt, 1,650 t trial displacement / 2,130 t full load; builder 'Navy Yard, Norfolk, Va.'; keel laid 16 Mar 43; launched 24 Apr 43; first commission 18 Jul 43; armament one 5 in/38 cal D.P., three twin 40 mm, six 20 mm, two depth-charge tracks; troop accommodations 12 officers / 150 enlisted. The hull does not appear in Vol. I's DE roster - it was reclassified APD-54 (24 Nov 1944) before the 1945 edition's compilation.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1945
- Population
- Norfolk Navy Yard construction trades 1943; crew and embarked troops 1943-45
- Limitations
- Official contemporaneous roster - documents identity, builder, dates, dimensions, and armament; contains no insulation or materials information and says nothing about asbestos. Values read from OCR of a scanned CONFIDENTIAL-marked 1945 table; row-26 cells corroborated against NavSource and DANFS where they overlap (all dates agree).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chase-de158-02
-
[4]Bureau of Ships, Ships' Data, U.S. Naval Vessels, Vol. III (1945), APD machinery-table row 26 for CHASE APD-54 (shipscribe.com scan; OCR of book p. 294) [other_primary]
- Locator
- SDB1945v3 APD machinery spread, row 26 (book p. 294; shipscribe scan PDF p. 313)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Official per-hull machinery row for this hull: APD-54 CHASE - 2 propellers, 'G.E. turbo-elec.' machinery, 12,000 shaft horsepower, 2 boilers of '"D" Exp' (D-type Express) type at 435 p.s.i. / 750 deg F superheat. Documents that this hull carried a full superheated steam plant driving turbo-electric machinery - the TE-design plant shared by the Buckley class, unlike the all-diesel escort classes.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1945
- Population
- Engineering crew 1943-45; Boston Navy Yard conversion workforce 1944-45
- Limitations
- Establishes plant type and steam conditions for this specific hull, not insulation content or asbestos. Boiler manufacturer not given in the row (type only); navypedia's block map attributes Babcock & Wilcox to the DE-153-161 block while NavSource's APD-54 spec block reads Combustion Engineering - conflict carried in gaps.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chase-de158-03
-
[5]United States Naval Chronology, World War II (Naval History Division, 1955), entry for 20 May 1945 (HyperWar/ibiblio transcription, chr45-05) [other_primary]
- Locator
- U.S. Naval Chronology WWII, May 1945 section, 20 May entry (ibiblio /pha/chr/chr45-05.html)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Official Navy war chronology lists this hull's combat damage: 'United States naval vessels damaged, Okinawa area: ... High-speed transport CHASE (APD-54), by suicide plane, 26 d. 18'N., 127 d. 14'E.' (20 May 1945). Corroborates the DANFS account of the kamikaze near-miss that opened the hull and flooded the engine and fire rooms; the chronology also lists ships damaged the same day (Thatcher DD-514, John C. Butler DE-339, Tattnall APD-19, Register APD-92, LST-808).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1945-05-20
- Population
- Crew aboard APD-54 at time of damage (20 May 1945); Kerama Retto repair personnel
- Limitations
- Documents the damage event and position only - no casualty, materials, repair-scope, or insulation detail. 'Damaged by suicide plane' is the official category; the DANFS narrative supplies the near-miss mechanism (bomb explosion splashed 10 yards off).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chase-de158-04
-
[6]NavSource High-speed Transport Photo Archive, USS Chase (APD-54) page + Destroyer Escort Photo Archive DE-158 page (specs, building/operational data, awards, CO list, photo captions) [other_primary]
- Locator
- navsource.net/archives/10/04/04054.htm (APD-54) + navsource.net/archives/06/158.htm (DE-158), building-and-operational-data blocks, spec blocks, photo captions
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource compiled record for this hull: keel laid 16 March 1943 at Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Va.; launched and christened 24 April 1943, sponsor Mrs. J. V. Chase, widow of Admiral Chase; commissioned 18 July 1943 at the St. Helena Annex, Norfolk Navy Yard (Berkley/Berklee), Va., Lcdr. V. B. Staadecker, USNR; reclassified APD-54 24 November 1944 and converted at the Boston Navy Yard; conversion completed 4 February 1945; decommissioned 15 January 1946 at San Diego after 2 years 6 months; struck from the NVR 7 February 1946; sold 13 November 1946, scrapped. Convoy UGS-38 named for the 20 April 1944 Bizerte action; TransDiv 107 (CAPT. N. E. Miller) for Okinawa. Awards: Combat Action Ribbon (retroactive, 20 Apr 1944 and 20 May 1945), American Campaign Medal, EAME w/1 star, Asiatic-Pacific w/1 star, WWII Victory Medal. APD spec block: 2,130 t full, 23.6 kt, 12 officers/192 enlisted plus 12/150 troops, 4 LCVPs. Photo caption: hull moored at Kerama Retto after the 20 May 1945 hit.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Population
- Wartime crew (NavSource APD block: 12 officers/192 enlisted; troop accommodations 12/150)
- Limitations
- Compiled secondary archive, not a contemporaneous record - dates concur with DANFS/SDB where they overlap. The APD-page summary line reads 'Laid down, 11 August 1943' which is impossible (launch was 24 April 1943) and conflicts with NavSource's own DE-page figure of 16 March 1943 - corroborated by the SDB roster row; the 11 August figure is a page error, conflict documented in gaps. No asbestos or materials information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chase-de158-05
-
[7]Consolidated era/design inference - BuShips SDB 1945 Vol. III per-hull machinery row (2 'D' Express boilers 435 psi/750 deg F, GE turbo-electric) + GAO HRD-80-2 era context + Atlas class-pattern precedent for steam-plant escorts (buckley-class profile) [other_primary]
- Locator
- SDB1945v3 book p. 294 row 26 (machinery); shipyards.json records 'norfolk-naval-shipyard' (tier 2) and 'boston-naval-shipyard' (tier 3); buckley-class profile ev-buckley-class-04
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/design inference: a Buckley-class (TE) destroyer escort built 1943 with a full superheated steam plant would have carried era-standard asbestos applications - boiler and fireroom insulation, steam-line and turbine lagging, valve and flange gaskets, machinery packing, fireproofing, and deck coverings. The November 1944-February 1945 APD conversion at Boston Navy Yard and the 1943 build at Norfolk Navy Yard both occurred at yards with yard-level asbestos documentation in the Atlas shipyards dataset. The 20 May 1945 battle damage opened and flooded the engine and fire rooms - the machinery spaces where steam-plant insulation concentrated - but no repair record describing materials was located.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Population
- Norfolk Navy Yard construction trades 1943; crew 1943-46; Boston Navy Yard conversion trades 1944-45; Kerama Retto repair personnel 1945
- Limitations
- Class/era and design inference plus yard-level context only - NOT a hull-specific finding. No insulation schedule or material list for DE-158/APD-54 was located; this establishes era-consistent expectation for the type, not that any specific material went aboard this hull. Yard-level asbestos documentation at Norfolk/Boston attaches to the yards, not to this vessel. Does not quantify material or establish any individual's exposure.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chase-de158-06
-
[8]GAO, Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure, HRD-80-2 (Oct 18, 1979) [gao]
- Locator
- GAO product page HRD-80-2 (full text blocked, HTTP 403)
- Finding type
- gov_survey
- Finding
- GAO documented the Navy's extensive shipboard asbestos insulation use with substitution not beginning until the early 1970s - DE-158 (built 1943, scrapped after 1946) falls inside the documented asbestos-use era for Navy ship construction.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1979
- Population
- Navy shipyard workers
- Limitations
- Program-level era context only. Full text not retrieved (gao.gov returns HTTP 403 to automated fetches); content via product-page description. Says nothing about this specific hull.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chase-de158-07
-
[9]CourtListener API v4 opinion and docket sweeps for 'USS Chase' / 'DE-158' / 'APD-54' (via fleet-paced authenticated helper cl-auth-search.py) [court_record]
- Locator
- CourtListener API v4 search results 2026-09-28: 'USS Chase' type=o count=0, type=r count=0; 'DE-158' type=o count=33 (all ECF/Spanish-language false positives); 'APD-54' type=o count=0
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- No qualifying asbestos litigation names this hull. Opinion sweep '"USS Chase"' (type=o): 0 hits. Docket sweep '"USS Chase"' (type=r): 0 hits - no docketed case names the ship. Hull-number sweeps: '"DE-158"' (type=o) 33 hits, all ECF document-entry-number false positives ('[DE 158]' docket-entry citations inside unrelated opinions - McCool v. Woodstream, Silva v. Baptist Health, Roberts v. Gordy, and similar) plus Puerto Rico opinions containing the Spanish preposition, zero vessel or asbestos references; '"APD-54"' (type=o): 0 hits. A supplemental unquoted 'Chase asbestos' sweep was attempted but stood down by fleet pacing - see search_ledger.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 2026-09-28
- Limitations
- Sweep coverage is the CourtListener opinion + RECAP docket indexes only; state-court dockets not mirrored, PACER-only filings, and settled/undocketed claims are outside it. 'No result' does not prove no claim was ever filed - it proves no indexed opinion or docket names the hull. 'Chase' is a high-collision surname/corporate name (JPMorgan Chase, Chase National Bank, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase citations) - the quoted vessel-name form returned zero hits. DE-158's out-of-service date (1946) precedes the asbestos-litigation era.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chase-de158-08
-
[10]Batch-4069 search ledger (this record): DANFS transcriptions; NavSource archive pages; BuShips Ships' Data 1945 Vol. III APD roster/machinery rows (OCR); U.S. Naval Chronology WWII; GAO product page; NARA digitized deck-log inventory; VA/BVA web search; general web sweep; CourtListener sweeps (see ledger) [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-chase-de158-01 through sl-uss-chase-de158-12
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located for DE-158/APD-54: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, material schedule, or museum documentation exists for this hull - it was sold for scrapping in November 1946, decades before the museum-donation and hazmat-disclosure era that produced records for preserved hulls. The only 'asbestos' hits naming USS Chase in general web search are law-firm marketing listicles that enumerate every WWII hull - non-authoritative and excluded by batch rules.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 2026-09-28
- Limitations
- Absence of a located record is not proof of absence aboard - 1943 steam-plant escort construction falls inside the documented Navy asbestos-use era. Deck logs (RG 24) and BuShips construction/conversion records (RG 19, incl. any General Information Book and the 1944-45 APD conversion file) at NARA are unsurveyed leads, as is any BuShips war-damage report for the 20 May 1945 hit. Does not establish that asbestos was or was not present aboard; does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-chase-de158-09