Evidence
8 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-8).
-
[1]Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS), 'Consolation (AH-15)' - HyperWar mirror of Office of the Chief of Naval Operations / Naval History Division text [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS AH-15 full entry (ibiblio.org HyperWar mirror of NHHC text)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Launched 1 August 1944 as Marine Walrus by Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Chester, PA, under a Maritime Commission contract; sponsored by Mrs. H. C. Wilson; acquired by the Navy 30 August 1944; converted at Bethlehem Steel Co., Hoboken, N.J.; commissioned 22 May 1945. WWII: Wakayama POW screening (1,062 embarked), Okinawa typhoon casualties, Nagoya station hospital. Inactive at Hampton Roads 1946-1950. Korea: Pusan from 16 August 1950; Inchon, Wonsan, Hungnam; San Diego overhaul and helicopter platform 1951; Operation 'Helicopter' from 18 December 1951 - first helicopter evacuation of casualties directly from battlefield to a hospital ship; Korea until 6 April 1954; Passage to Freedom; Korea until 12 March 1955; out of commission in reserve at San Francisco 30 December 1955; chartered to People to People Health Foundation 16 March 1960 and renamed Hope. Received 10 battle stars for Korean war service.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1944-1960
- Population
- Ship's company (564 complement) and medical staff; patients embarked 1945-1955
- Limitations
- Authoritative service and construction history; contains no asbestos, insulation, or hazardous-material information. The transcription's '5 October 1963' repair-period date is a typo for 1953 (sequence and NHHC overview confirm Korea service through 1953-54).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-consolation-ah15-01
-
[2]NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive, USS Consolation (AH-15) - specification block and chronology [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource page 09/12/1215, 'Specifications' block, chronology, and Korean War campaign table
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Specification block: 1 General Electric combination HP/LP steam turbine geared engine; 2 Babcock & Wilcox header-type boilers, 450 psi / 745 deg F; double Falk main reduction gear; single propeller, 9,000 shp; three 500 kW turbo AC and three 300 kW turbo DC ship's-service generators; complement 70 officers / 498 enlisted; 800 patient capacity. Chronology: decommissioned 30 December 1955; laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet; leased 16 March 1960 to the People to People Health Foundation and renamed SS Hope; struck from the Naval Register 15 September 1974; final disposition 'sold ... for scrapping, 1 September 1974 and scrapped in 1975'; 10 Korean War battle stars with campaign list.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1944-1975
- Population
- Ship's company ~568 (crew) per spec block
- Limitations
- Volunteer-compiled archival page quoting Navy sources; consistent with DANFS and MARAD where they overlap. The 'sold 1 September 1974' date conflicts with the MARAD Record of Ship Sales (award 1975-01-22, contract MA-7673) - the MARAD sale date is carried and the NavSource date appears to conflate the September 1974 striking. Propulsion/spec data are equipment description only - no asbestos content stated or implied.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-consolation-ah15-02
-
[3]MARAD Vessel History Database, CONSOLATION (AH-15) detail record 6027 with Vessel Status Card (Form MA-199) and Record of Ship Sales (Form MA-20) card images [marad_nrc]
- Locator
- vesselhistory.marad.dot.gov ShipHistory Detail 6027; card images /cards/35C_01.png (MA-199) and /cards/6027_AF.jpg (MA-20)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- MARAD identifies this hull as CONSOLATION (AH-15) / HOPE / MARINE WALRUS, Official No. 283284, C4-S-B2 hospital-type vessel, built 1944 by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock (builder's hull 351, MC hull 746), 13,574 gross tons, 520 ft x 71.5 ft. Status card custody chain: delivered from U.S. Maritime Commission to Department of the Navy 16 January 1946; loan effective 1 November 1960 to Project HOPE of Washington, D.C. with American President Lines as operating agent; permanent transfer Navy to Maritime Administration 22 January 1975; sale the same day to Andy International, Inc. - Purchase, Scrap. Record of Ship Sales: awarded to Andy International, Inc. 22 January 1975 for $378,999.00 under contract MA-7673; advertised under PD-X-990 dated 27 November 1974, bids opened 7 January 1975 under two conditions ((1) NTU (2) SCRAP HULL-US); award made under condition (2) SCRAP HULL-US; vessel location at sale: Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Philadelphia, PA.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1944-1975
- Limitations
- Primary government custody and sales documentation for this specific hull; documents ownership chain and scrapping condition but contains no asbestos, hazardous-material, or shipboard-condition information. Sale terms required scrapping the hull in the United States; the breaker's facility is not named.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-consolation-ah15-03
-
[4]U.S. Naval Historical Center / NHHC Online Library, 'USS Consolation (AH-15), 1945-1975. Operated as S.S. Hope, 1960-1973' - overview text and official photo captions (HyperWar mirror) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NHHC Online Library page for AH-15 (overview paragraphs; captions USN 1047330, USN 1047541)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NHHC overview: on arrival at Pusan in mid-August 1950 she became the first hospital ship to serve United Nations forces in Korea; overhauled at San Diego June-September 1951 and fitted with a helicopter deck aft; on 18 December 1951, operating 15 miles north of the 38th parallel, became the first hospital ship to receive a battle casualty directly from the battlefield by helicopter; Korea service to April 1954 except two San Diego repair periods; decommissioned December 1955. Hope era: operated under charter as civilian hospital ship March 1960-September 1974, completing 11 voyages (1960-1973); stricken from the Navy Register September 1974; sold by the Maritime Administration January 1975 for scrapping. Official photo captions document the ship towed out of San Francisco Bay 8 April 1960 en route to Seattle, Washington, for conversion to S.S. Hope, and pierside at Seattle 18 April 1960 commencing conversion.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1950-1975
- Population
- Ship's company and medical staff; Project HOPE crew/staff 1960-1974
- Limitations
- Authoritative Naval Historical Center narrative and photo metadata; contains no asbestos, insulation, or hazardous-material information. The Seattle conversion yard is not named in the captions.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-consolation-ah15-04
-
[5]Hampton Roads Naval Museum (U.S. Navy), 'Good Deeds Done, Goodwill Won: USS Consolation Becomes SS Hope' (Zac Cunningham, June 2022) [museum_official]
- Locator
- hamptonroadsnavalmuseum.blogspot.com, June 2022 post
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Official Navy museum article: USS Consolation supported Operation Passage to Freedom 4-27 September 1954 off present-day Da Nang, providing medical support rather than directly evacuating refugees (per crew recollections quoted); on 16 March 1960 the Navy transferred the ship to Project HOPE; the rechristened SS Hope visited South Vietnam in summer 1961.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1954; 1960-1961
- Population
- Ship's company during Passage to Freedom; Project HOPE staff
- Limitations
- Official museum publication corroborating the Passage to Freedom window and the March 1960 transfer; contains no asbestos or hazardous-material information. 'Transferred' is the museum's phrasing - the MARAD card documents the instrument as a loan (charter), with the hull remaining Navy-owned until 1975.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-consolation-ah15-05
-
[6]NavSource AH-15 photo captions quoting a U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) document on Haven-class hospital ship design [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 09/12/1215 photo captions (BUMED document quote)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- A BUMED document quoted in NavSource photo captions describes the Haven-class hospital ships - six C-4 hull conversions in New York-area yards - as 'completely air conditioned': class-level documentation of ship-wide forced-air ventilation, an asbestos-relevant system type (duct insulation, fan-room packing) for the era, though the document itself says nothing about asbestos.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1944-1945 (construction era)
- Limitations
- Class-level design statement encountered as a NavSource caption quote of a BUMED document; the underlying BUMED publication was not retrieved. Establishes system type for the class only - not insulation composition and not a hull-specific record.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-consolation-ah15-06
-
[7]Corn JK, Starr J. 'Historical perspective on asbestos: policies and protective measures in World War II shipbuilding.' Am J Ind Med 12(4):359-373 (1987) [other_primary]
- Locator
- Am J Ind Med 12(4):359-373 (1987), DOI 10.1002/ajim.4700120402
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Peer-reviewed historical study documenting that WWII-era U.S. shipyards extensively installed asbestos-containing insulation, lagging, and gaskets in naval and merchant construction - the era in which this hull was built (1944) and converted to a hospital ship (1944-45).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 1941-1945 (study scope)
- Population
- WWII-era shipyard construction and conversion workers (class context)
- Limitations
- Era-level scholarship; does not name this hull or class and does not establish that any specific material aboard this ship contained asbestos. Included only to characterize the documented era practice that makes asbestos plausible, not proven, on a 1944-built C4 conversion.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-consolation-ah15-07
-
[8]Batch-782 search ledger (this record): DANFS/NHHC via HyperWar mirror; NHHC Online Library; NavSource AH-15 archive; MARAD Vessel History detail 6027 with status cards; Hampton Roads Naval Museum; CourtListener searches (blocked); web-indexed litigation searches; NARA catalog [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-consolation-ah15-01 through sl-uss-consolation-ah15-13
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, EPA/OSHA asbestos action, or asbestos litigation naming USS Consolation (AH-15), Marine Walrus, or SS Hope was found in the public sources searched. CourtListener's API and HTML search were rate-limited/forbidden at research date (429/403); web-indexed searches of the CourtListener corpus and general web litigation queries returned only name collisions (Consol Energy filings) and zero qualifying asbestos cases (see search_ledger).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-20
- Study period
- 2026-09-20
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard. The hull was built and converted in 1944-45 when asbestos use was standard, served 1945-1955 Navy and 1960-1974 as SS Hope, and was scrapped in the United States in 1975 - predating routine hazardous-materials disclosure in ship disposal; no abatement or survey documentation was located. Direct CourtListener verification was rate-limited; PACER-only filings and unindexed opinions were not exhaustively excluded. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-consolation-ah15-08