Evidence
7 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-7).
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[1]Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (NHHC), 'Cimarron II (AO-22)' - interim update by Robert J. Cressman, published 2024-05-08 [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- NHHC DANFS 'Cimarron II (AO-22)' page (live URL 404 on 2026-09-24; cited via Wayback capture 2025-02-07)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS entry for Cimarron II (AO-22): laid down 25 April 1938 at Chester, Pa. by Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. under Maritime Commission contract (M.C. Hull 2); launched 7 January 1939, sponsored by Mrs. William D. Leahy; commissioned 20 March 1939, Lt. Cmdr. William W. Behrens in command. Statistics line: displacement 7,470; length 553'0"; beam 45'0" (apparent typographical error - MARAD and NavSource both give 75 ft); draft 32'4"; speed 18.0 knots; complement 304; armament 4 5-inch, 8 .50-caliber and 2 .30-caliber machine guns; class Cimarron; type T3-S2-A1. Entry narrates Atlantic and Pacific service including the Doolittle Raid fueling, Midway, Guadalcanal, Wake Island raid, Gilberts/Marshalls/Truk/Marianas/Palau, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and Tokyo Bay occupation duty.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-24
- Study period
- 1938-1946
- Limitations
- Establishes identity, construction dates, statistics, and operational history. Contains no asbestos or insulation-material statement; supports no asbestos claim. Internal discrepancy: statistics-line beam (45 ft) conflicts with the type's documented 75-ft beam (MARAD, NavSource) - treated as a DANFS typographical error, logged in gaps.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-cimarron-ao22-01
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[2]U.S. Maritime Administration, Vessel History Database - CIMARRON (AO-22), Detail 7357 [marad_nrc]
- Locator
- Vessel detail page: characteristics block, imagery captions, Status Cards section
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- MARAD Vessel History Database record for CIMARRON (AO-22), detail 7357: year built 1939; shipyard Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock; general type Naval Auxiliary; specific type AO Oiler; MARAD type T3-S2-A1; length 553.00 ft; beam 75.00 ft; gross tons 11,824; fate 'Sold - Scrap.' Record includes 30+ digitized U.S. Navy photographs documenting availabilities at Norfolk Navy Yard (6 Feb 1942), Mare Island (26-28 Nov 1942), and post-overhaul at San Francisco (Hunters Point) Navy Yard (20 Apr 1956), plus two digitized vessel status cards.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-24
- Study period
- 1939-1969
- Limitations
- Confirms builder, type, dimensions, and sold-for-scrap fate, and documents specific Navy-yard availabilities. Record carries no historical narrative and no milestones; status cards are digitized images whose handwritten entries were not OCR-verified this pass. No asbestos or hazmat statement in the record.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-cimarron-ao22-02
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[3]U.S. Maritime Administration history page, 'USS CIMARRON (AO-22) - U.S. Maritime Commission type T3-S2-A1' (page last updated 2022-04-07) [marad_nrc]
- Locator
- MARAD multimedia/vessel page body text (live fetch returned HTTP 403 on 2026-09-24; cited via Wayback capture 2025-01-05)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- MARAD history-program page for USS Cimarron (AO-22): Cimarron was the first of twelve Maritime Commission T3-S2-A1 tankers completed (second vessel delivered by the Commission); the type carried subsidized 'national defense features' (stronger steam turbine engines for extra speed); all twelve were purchased by the Navy and four were converted to escort carriers. Page records that the Navy decommissioned Cimarron in 1968 'following a collision with the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) during an underway refueling.' The CV-8 designation is a MARAD misprint - the 1968 collision partner was USS Hornet (CVS-12), per NavSource's Cimarron and Hornet archives and the Village of Cimarron, N.M. ship-history document (collision during a port-side underway-replenishment approach off San Diego, September 1968); CV-8 was sunk in October 1942.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-24
- Study period
- 1939-1968
- Limitations
- Official source for the T3-S2-A1 program context and the collision-to-decommissioning sequence. The September 1968 date and San Diego location come only from secondary compilations (NavSource-derived Village of Cimarron document) - flagged unverified at official level. Collision establishes an end-of-service event, not any asbestos condition.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-cimarron-ao22-03
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[4]Gilpin v. General Electric Co., 3:11-cv-03564-CRB (N.D. Cal.), complaint Exhibit A; MDL-875 docket (JPML 1245688) doc. 7786-3 (complaint attachment) and doc. 7599-2; N.D. Cal. docket 5918178 (terminated 2016-07-27) [court_record]
- Locator
- MDL-875 JPML docket doc. 7786-3 pp. 23-25 (Exhibit A exposure table, 'U.S. Navy CIMARRON (AO-22) Machinist 1/1955-3/24/1958'); N.D. Cal. docket entries 1, 58, 59
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- Gilpin v. General Electric Co. et al., No. 3:11-cv-03564-CRB (N.D. Cal.; survival/wrongful-death asbestos complaint filed 2011-07-20 by Brayton Purcell LLP; tagged into MDL-875, In re Asbestos Products Liability Litigation (No. VI), E.D. Pa.). Complaint Exhibit A lists decedent Charles Raymond Gilpin's exposure sites as including 'U.S. Navy CIMARRON (AO-22),' job title Machinist, dates 1/1955-3/24/1958, among other ships and yards. Diagnoses alleged: lung cancer (~Aug 2009), asbestosis and asbestos-related pleural disease (~Jan 2009); decedent died 2010-08-06. District docket shows stipulation orders and a settlement-status order (CBS Corp. terminated 2015-02-19; case terminated 2016-07-27) with no adjudicated exposure finding.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-24
- Study period
- Alleged exposure 1955-1958; litigation 2011-2016
- Population
- One named decedent (Charles Raymond Gilpin, machinist, alleged aboard 1955-1958)
- Limitations
- PLEADING-STAGE ALLEGATION, classified at the less-final stage per batch discipline: a complaint's exposure list is an allegation, not a finding. The complaint names this hull and gives service dates, but no court ever adjudicated exposure aboard Cimarron; the case ended in stipulations/settlement-status orders (terminated 2016-07-27) with no merits determination, and terms are not public. Does not establish that asbestos was aboard, that decedent was exposed aboard, or causation. Exhibit A is a scanned image; content verified by OCR of the RECAP PDF this session.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-cimarron-ao22-04
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[5]Corn, Jacqueline Karnell, and Jennifer Starr, 'Historical perspective on asbestos: Policies and protective measures in World War II shipbuilding,' American Journal of Industrial Medicine 11(3):359-373 (1987) [other_primary]
- Locator
- AJIM 11(3):359-373, abstract and article
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Peer-reviewed historical study documents that asbestos was used extensively as a fireproofing and insulating material in U.S. shipbuilding of the World War II era, the industrial period in which this 1938-39 Maritime Commission steam-turbine tanker was designed and built. Typical applications in steam plants of the era included boiler and steam-line insulation (lagging), machinery packing, and valve/flange gaskets.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-24
- Study period
- 1930s-1940s era documented; article 1987
- Population
- Shipyard construction workers (Sun Shipbuilding, 1938-39); Navy engine-room and maintenance crews 1939-1968 (era context)
- Limitations
- Program/era-level scholarship on WWII-era shipbuilding generally; does not name this vessel or the T3-S2-A1 type and does not establish that asbestos was or remains aboard this hull, nor quantity, location, condition, individual exposure, or causation. Hull predates the war (keel 1938) though built under the same Maritime Commission industrial regime the paper describes.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-cimarron-ao22-05
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[6]Batch-1871 search ledger (this record): DANFS, MARAD ShipHistory detail 7357, MARAD vessel page, CourtListener opinion + docket searches, NavSource [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger sl-uss-cimarron-ao22-01 through -10
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No ship-specific asbestos record located for AO-22: no Navy or MARAD asbestos survey, no abatement contract, no museum/donation hazmat disclosure, no published opinion naming the hull, and no regulatory record. The ship was sold for scrap in September-October 1969 (title transfer to MARAD and simultaneous sale to Levin Metals Corp. 1969-09-15; delivery 1969-10-17) - before OSHA's first asbestos standard (1971-72) and before documented ship-scrapping abatement regimes, so absence of an abatement record is expected rather than probative of a clean hull.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-24
- Study period
- 1939-1969
- Limitations
- Records a negative result, not proof of absence: pre-regulation scrapping means no abatement paper trail would be expected even if the ship carried substantial asbestos. The 1969 breaking-up at Levin Metals (San Jose) has no surveyed hazmat documentation located.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-cimarron-ao22-06
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[7]National Archives record-group guides (RG 24 deck logs; RG 19 Bureau of Ships; RG 178 U.S. Maritime Commission); MARAD Vessel History status-card images, detail 7357 [other_primary]
- Locator
- archives.gov RG 24 guide; MARAD detail 7357 Status Cards section
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Archival leads for hull-level material records: Cimarron deck logs and war diaries are held in NARA RG 24 (WWII-era deck logs digitized through the NARA catalog); Bureau of Ships construction/maintenance records (RG 19) and Maritime Commission construction files for MC hull 2 (RG 178) are the likeliest repositories for any original insulation/material specification. MARAD ShipHistory holds two digitized vessel status cards for this hull (images; not OCR-verified this pass).
- Verification
- unverified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-24
- Study period
- 1938-1969
- Limitations
- Lead only - no hull-level construction specification, insulation schedule, or status-card text was pulled and verified this session; no paid reproduction authorized. Presence of records is plausible, not confirmed.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-cimarron-ao22-07