Evidence
8 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-8).
-
[1]research packet jh-packet.md (3 sources cited) [other_primary]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-decatur-dd341-pkt-jh-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, Decatur III (DD-341) - canonical NHHC page, retrieved through Wayback Machine capture 2025-12-09 (live NHHC page returns 404 this session) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry 'Decatur III (DD-341)', specifications block + service narrative
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: Clemson-class destroyer (dp. 1,190; l. 314'5"; b. 30'8"; dr. 9'3"; s. 36 k.; cpl. 126; a. 4 4", 2 3", 4 21" tt.). Launched 29 October 1921 by Mare Island Navy Yard; sponsored by Mrs. J. S. McKean; commissioned 9 August 1922, Lieutenant C. K. Osborne in command. Out of commission at San Diego 17 January-26 September 1923, then flagship of Destroyer Squadron 11, Battle Fleet; western seaboard, Caribbean, and Hawaiian operations to 1937; Samoa-New Zealand-Australia cruise April-September 1925; Mexican coast survey April 1926; carried Secretary of the Navy C. D. Wilbur on an Alaskan cruise 28 July-6 August 1926; transported the Haitian Commission to Santiago 14 March 1930; Presidential Fleet Review 19 May 1930. Norfolk-based Training Detachment duty from 22 February 1937; escorted President Roosevelt in Potomac (AG-25); midshipman/Naval Reserve cruises and neutrality patrol to September 1941. Convoy escort Argentia-Iceland 14 September 1941-17 May 1942; Norfolk-Key West and New York-Guantanamo convoy duty; five New York/Aruba-Mediterranean escort voyages February-October 1943; Card task group antisubmarine sweep 24 November 1943-3 January 1944; flagship of TF 64 convoying to Bizerte March-April 1944, repelling a coordinated German submarine/air strike 31 March; overhaul at Boston May 1944; Caribbean escort/training July 1944-June 1945; inactivated at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard; decommissioned 28 July 1945; sold 30 November 1945. Two battle stars for World War II service.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1920-1945
- Population
- Mare Island Navy Yard construction trades 1920-1922; interwar and wartime crew (complement 126 per DANFS); Philadelphia Naval Shipyard inactivation workforce 1945
- Limitations
- DANFS documents construction, specifications, and service history - not materials or asbestos content. DANFS omits the laid-down and stricken dates for this hull (NavSource supplies 15 September 1920 and 13 August 1945). DANFS prints the Card group flagship as 'Card (CV-11)'; Card was escort carrier CVE-11 (CV-11 was Intrepid) - carried in gaps. Live NHHC page returned 404; verbatim text cited via Wayback Machine capture of the canonical URL (2025-12-09).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-decatur-dd341-01
-
[3]NHHC Online Library of Selected Images, 'USS Decatur (DD-341), 1922-1945' overview page (ibiblio/HyperWar mirror of the Naval History and Heritage Command Online Library) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- NHHC Online Library 'U.S. Navy Ships' overview, dd341.htm
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NHHC Online Library overview for this hull: 'a 1190-ton Clemson class destroyer built at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California ... commissioned in August 1922, the last (by a few days) of the more than 270 similar "flush-deck" destroyers constructed during the World War I era.' Confirms the Battle Fleet 1925 New Zealand/Australia cruise, February 1937 Atlantic training-ship duty, September 1941 North Atlantic convoy escort, February 1943 transatlantic Mediterranean escort, the Card (CVE-11) anti-submarine task-group tour in late 1943, and decommissioning at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in July 1945 with sale for scrapping at the end of November 1945. Adds two ship-specific facts not in the DANFS entry: a planned conversion to a high-speed transport (hull number APD-30) was cancelled, and she was the last of the WWI-program flush-deck destroyers to commission.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1922-1945
- Population
- Crew 1922-1945
- Limitations
- Overview text confirms service history and the cancelled APD-30 conversion; contains no asbestos or materials information. Mirror transcription of the official NHC/NHHC Online Library page.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-decatur-dd341-02
-
[4]NavSource Naval History Destroyer Photo Index, USS Decatur (DD-341) - as-built data block, operational/building data, fate line, and commanding-officer roster; NHHC photo data page NH 91579 (ibiblio/HyperWar mirror) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource DD-341 index (as-built block, building data, fate, CO roster); NHC Online Library picture-data page NH 91579
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Index and photo documentation for this hull: call sign NUQV; as built 1,215 tons, 314'5" oa x 31'8" x 9'10" max; armament 4x4"/50, 1x3"/23AA, 12x21" tt; machinery 26,000 SHP Parsons-design turbines, 2 screws; 35 knots; crew 114. Laid down by Mare Island Navy Yard 15 September 1920; launched 29 October 1921; commissioned 9 August 1922; decommissioned 28 July 1945; stricken 13 August 1945; sold 30 November 1945 to Boston Metals, Baltimore for $8,777, resold to Northern Metals, Philadelphia, and broken up for scrap. NHHC photographs include NH 54650/54651 (Fleet Review, 4 June 1927), NH 98172 (Panama Canal, 1920s-30s), NH 42539 (possibly among destroyers nested at San Diego), NH 67695 (Hudson River off Poughkeepsie, 17 June 1939), NH 91580/91581 (off New York Navy Yard, 7 August 1943, departing to escort convoy UT-8), NH 91579 (underway 22 January 1944 en route Hampton Roads to New York Navy Yard), October-November 1944 refueling from Bennington (CV-20), and March 1945 refueling from Antietam (CV-36) off Trinidad. CO roster includes LCDR Jesse B. Oldendorf - later the admiral commanding at Surigao Strait - in command 16 December 1922-26 September 1923 and 17 May 1924-27 May 1927.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1920-1945
- Population
- Mare Island construction trades 1920-1922; crew 1922-1945 (NavSource: 114)
- Limitations
- NavSource is a reputable volunteer archive used as an index/lead, not a primary source; its figures (crew 114, 31'8" beam, 12 torpedo tubes, 26,000 shp) differ slightly from DANFS (126, 30'8", 4 tt, 36 kt) - DANFS carried where they conflict, variants noted in gaps. NH 91579 picture-data page verified on the ibiblio mirror. No asbestos or materials content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-decatur-dd341-03
-
[5]National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places: Mare Island Naval Shipyard, NRIS 75002103 (National Historic Landmark District, designated 15 May 1975), Vallejo, CA [nps]
- Locator
- NPS NRIS record 75002103; NHL nomination 'Mare Island Naval Shipyard' (1975); shipyards.json record 'mare-island-naval-shipyard'
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- NPS documentation covers the builder's yard: Mare Island Naval Shipyard, the U.S. Navy's first permanent Pacific-coast installation (1854), was designated a National Historic Landmark district in 1975 (NRIS 75002103). This hull was laid down there 15 September 1920, launched 29 October 1921, and commissioned 9 August 1922. The Atlas yard dataset's 'mare-island-naval-shipyard' record (tier 2) documents period asbestos products at the yard - Unibestos, Marinite boards, Transite pipe, Kaylo, Careytemp, Gold Bond, packing, gaskets, refractory materials - through a 1998 Navy/City of Vallejo EIS/EIR.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1920-1922 (build period); 1975 (NHL designation); 1998 (EIS)
- Population
- Mare Island Navy Yard workforce, 1920-1922 (build); 1945 (no evidence hull returned for scrapping - broken up at Philadelphia by Northern Metals)
- Limitations
- Documents the builder's yard and its yard-level asbestos record - not this hull's materials; no hull-specific construction-materials detail beyond siting. Yard dataset findings address yard operations generally, not DD-341 specifically.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-decatur-dd341-04
-
[6]Fleischer WE, Viles FJ Jr, et al., 'A health survey of pipe covering operations in constructing naval vessels,' J Ind Hyg Toxicol 1946 Jan;28:9-16 (PMID 21016030) + NavSource DD-341 machinery data + Atlas shipyards.json 'mare-island-naval-shipyard' and 'philadelphia-naval-shipyard' records + NARA RG 19 General Information Books archival lead [other_primary]
- Locator
- PubMed record PMID 21016030 (J Ind Hyg Toxicol 1946;28:9-16); NavSource DD-341 index; shipyards.json records 'mare-island-naval-shipyard' and 'philadelphia-naval-shipyard'; NARA RG19 GIB series as unretrieved lead
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/class inference: DD-341 was a Clemson-class flush-deck destroyer built 1920-1922 at Mare Island Navy Yard with the class-standard plant of four water-tube boilers and geared steam turbines (NavSource: Parsons design, 26,000 shp, 2 screws). Steam vessels of this construction era carried thermal insulation on boilers, steam drums, and steam lines plus gaskets and packing, and insulation products of the period commonly contained asbestos fiber. Fleischer et al. (1946) document amosite asbestos as 'an important ingredient of pipe covering material used on U.S. Navy vessels' under construction - a government/peer-reviewed yard survey establishing Navy practice roughly two decades after this build, carried as era-continuity context. The Atlas yard dataset documents period asbestos products at builder Mare Island Naval Shipyard and at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, where this hull was inactivated in mid-1945. NARA RG 19 'General Information Books' hold per-vessel material specifications and are the archival lead for hull-level materials data.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1920-1945 (hull); 1946 (Fleischer survey)
- Population
- Mare Island Navy Yard construction trades 1920-1922; crew 1922-1945; Philadelphia Naval Shipyard inactivation workforce 1945
- Limitations
- Class/era and yard-level inference only - NO ship-specific asbestos finding; no surveyed material, spec sheet, or removal record for this hull was located. Fleischer documents WWII-era construction practice (1940s), roughly two decades after this hull's 1920-22 build - era-continuity evidence, not proof of identical 1920 materials. Yard-dataset findings concern yard operations, not this hull's construction or inactivation specifically. NARA GIB retrieval not performed.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-decatur-dd341-05
-
[7]Batch-3327 search ledger (this record): NHHC DANFS live site and Wayback capture; NHHC Online Library overview and photo data pages; NavSource destroyer index; CourtListener API v4 opinion and RECAP sweeps; NARA catalog availability; NPS NHL/NRIS check; web sweep for hazmat/abatement/survey/litigation records naming the hull; PubMed citation verification [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-decatur-dd341-01 through sl-uss-decatur-dd341-13
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or docketed case naming USS Decatur (DD-341) as an exposure site was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). The hull was sold for scrapping in November 1945 - before the asbestos-litigation era - so no preserved-hull or museum-disclosure surface exists. Completed CourtListener sweeps returned no asbestos hit for this hull: opinion queries "Decatur" "DD-341" and "aboard the Decatur" returned zero results; the "USS Decatur" opinion query returned only Wallace v. Chappell, 637 F.2d 1345 (9th Cir. 1981) - a racial-discrimination suit by enlisted sailors against their officers aboard a 1970s Decatur, necessarily DDG-31 (DD-341 was already scrapped) - other litigation and a name collision, not qualifying; the "DD-341" RECAP docket query returned one bankruptcy docket (Pitts, E.D. Mich. 2010) - a string collision, not the vessel. Two queries ("USS Decatur" type=r; "USS Decatur" + asbestos type=o) remained blocked by fleet pacing at session end. Independently of CourtListener, the only court opinion located naming 'USS Decatur' in an asbestos context (McIsaac v. Air & Liquid Systems, D. Mass.) names a Forrest Sherman-class ship - DD-936, a different hull - and the asbestos-litigation marketing corpus generically lists all three destroyer hulls named Decatur (DD-5, DD-341, DD-936) - see ev-07. Other commissioned hulls of the name: Decatur (DD-5, 1902-1919), Decatur IV (DD-936/DDG-31, 1956-1983), Decatur V (DDG-73, 1998-present).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 2026-09-27
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - 1920-22 steam-ship construction commonly used asbestos, but for this hull that remains era inference, not ship-proven. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility. Opinion coverage was completed for exact-name and hull-number queries (no asbestos hit); the "USS Decatur" docket sweep and the asbestos-qualified opinion query remained blocked by the shared fleet pacing budget at session end - logged per-query in the search_ledger. An unindexed pleading or RECAP attachment naming the hull cannot be excluded.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-decatur-dd341-06
-
[8]McIsaac v. Air & Liquid Systems Corp. (successor to Buffalo Pumps), No. 19-10282-NMG (D. Mass.), Memorandum & Order (Gorton, J.) allowing defendant's motion for summary judgment - full text reviewed via hosted PDF copy; DANFS Decatur IV (DD-936) entry as discriminator; collision corpus observed in excluded law-firm marketing pages (shepardlawfirm.com, mesotheliomahelp.org, sokolovelaw.com, asbestos.com, gorilaw.com, mesothelioma.com, duboselawfirm.com) [court_record]
- Locator
- McIsaac v. Air & Liquid Systems, No. 19-10282-NMG (D. Mass.), Memorandum & Order, Factual Background section ('Forrest-Sherman-class ships (including the USS Decatur ...)'); DANFS 'Decatur IV (DD-936)' entry via Wayback capture 2025-12-11
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- Name-collision correction: the court and marketing records naming 'USS Decatur' are NOT about this hull. In McIsaac (D. Mass. 19-10282-NMG), Navy archive records recited in the opinion attribute Buffalo pumps to 'Forrest-Sherman-class ships (including the USS Decatur, the USS Barry and the USS Davis)' - Forrest Sherman-class USS Decatur is DD-936 (launched 15 December 1955 by Bethlehem Steel, Quincy; commissioned 7 December 1956; reclassified DDG-31 15 September 1966; decommissioned 30 June 1983 at Pearl Harbor; sunk as a test platform 2004 per DANFS Decatur IV), not DD-341. The exposure window litigated (Boston Naval Shipyard rigging work 1965-1970s) postdates DD-341's 1945 scrapping by two decades. The same collision holds in non-asbestos litigation: the only CourtListener opinion hits for 'USS Decatur' are Wallace v. Chappell, 637 F.2d 1345 (9th Cir. 1981) (en banc and panel) - a racial-discrimination action by Black enlisted sailors against their superior officers aboard a 1970s-era Decatur, which must be DDG-31 since DD-341 was scrapped in 1945-46 (the case later reached the Supreme Court as Chappell v. Wallace, 462 U.S. 296 (1983)) - non-asbestos litigation on a different hull. Asbestos-marketing ship lists name DD-341 generically alongside DD-5 and DD-936 (mesotheliomahelp.org, sokolovelaw.com, mesothelioma.com) but carry no case narrative for this hull; the only narrative marketing page located (shepardlawfirm.com) is explicitly DDG-31 (ex DD-936). Any consumer matching a 'USS Decatur' asbestos claim to DD-341 from that corpus would be a misattribution unless the source itself names DD-341 or a pre-1946 window.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- correction
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1956-2004 (DD-936 window); 2019-2023 (McIsaac litigation); 2026 (marketing corpus)
- Population
- John T. McIsaac (Boston Naval Shipyard rigger 1965/1967-1970s; mesothelioma, d. 2019) - exposure site Boston Naval Shipyard, vessels incl. USS Albany and USS Boston
- Limitations
- McIsaac is a merits-level defense summary-judgment win naming DD-936 only as a product-location recital - it is not exposure evidence for any Decatur hull, and it does not adjudicate anything about DD-341. Marketing claims are not litigation records - no docketed opinion naming DD-341 as an exposure site was located this session (see ev-06 for sweep coverage and residual blockage). The collision determination rests on DANFS hull identities, the McIsaac class descriptor, the Wallace/Chappell 1970s timeframe, and the marketing pages' own hull numbers, not on any adjudicated record about this hull. Marketing pages are cited here only to document the collision risk, never as exposure evidence. McIsaac full text reviewed via a hosted PDF copy (brownsims.com 'Longshore Update' file); an official reporter/CourtListener citation is the open lead.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-decatur-dd341-07