Evidence
5 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-5).
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[1]Naval History and Heritage Command, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, "Dominant I (AMC-76)" [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- Full entry text, verified via Wayback Machine capture (timestamp 20251209191318) after the live NHHC page returned HTTP 404 to automated fetch
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- The wooden-hulled Dominant (AMc-76), a coastal minesweeper, was laid down 9 April 1941 by the Gibbs Gas Engine Co., Jacksonville, Fla., launched 6 June 1941 and commissioned at Charleston, S.C., on 29 September 1941. After fitting out at Charleston, Dominant sailed to New London, Conn., and reported for duty to Commander, Submarine Force Atlantic, on 24 November 1941. After a restricted availability at the Navy Yard at Boston in February 1942, the minesweeper returned to New London via Newport and decommissioned there on 8 March 1942. Assigned to Commander, Third Naval District, the minesweeper served in a non-commissioned status out of New London until reassigned to the Fifth Naval District on 13 December 1943 for use in mine warfare tests. She served in that duty until placed out of service at Norfolk on 15 April 1946. The minesweeper was stricken from the Navy List on 1 May 1946 and transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal on 5 September 1947. (Spec line: displacement 283 tons; length 96 ft; beam 21 ft; draft 9 ft; speed 11 knots; armament 2 .30-caliber machine guns.)
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-23
- Study period
- 1941-1947
- Limitations
- Establishes identity, construction, commissioning, non-combat service history, and disposal chain. Does not state propulsion type, does not mention materials or construction fabric beyond hull material (wood), and contains no asbestos information of any kind.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-dominant-amc76-01
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[2]Naval History and Heritage Command, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, "Dominant II (AM-431)" [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- Entry text as extracted via search-engine indexing of the official DANFS page; the live page returned HTTP 404 to direct automated fetch and no Wayback Machine capture was available for this specific URL, so this row is confirmed via a search-index echo of the official source rather than a directly rendered/quoted page view
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- A second, entirely distinct USS Dominant exists in Navy history: Dominant (AM-431), an Agile-class ocean minesweeper (displacement 620 tons; length 172 ft; beam 36 ft; draft 10 ft; speed 16 knots; complement 74; armament one 40mm gun), launched 5 November 1953 by C. Hiltebrant Dry Dock Co., Kingston, N.Y., and commissioned 8 November 1954. Reclassified MSO-431 on 7 February 1955. Homeported Charleston, S.C., with Mine Force Atlantic/Mine Division 43, deploying to Europe for NATO exercises. This hull's construction, commissioning, and entire service period (1953-1982 per further reporting) postdate AMc-76's 1946 disposal by 7+ years and do not overlap it at any point.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- correction
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-23
- Study period
- 1953-1982
- Limitations
- Used solely to establish that AM-431/MSO-431 is a different hull from AMc-76 (different class, era, builder, and non-overlapping service dates), per the task brief's own framing. Not used to support any asbestos claim about either hull. Verification is partial because the underlying DANFS page could not be directly fetched or archived-capture-verified in this research pass (link rot / bot-blocking); the extracted text is internally consistent with the well-documented Agile/Admirable-class minesweeper program and with the task brief's statement that AM-431 is a separate tier-2 PRIMARY record.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-dominant-amc76-02
-
[3]National Archives Catalog, NAID 285136805 (Dominant (AMc-76), deck log, Feb-Jul 1945, RG 24 logbook series) [other_primary]
- Locator
- Catalog record metadata as extracted via search-engine indexing; the live catalog.archives.gov page is JavaScript-rendered and could not be directly fetched or quoted by automated tools in this research pass (returns an empty shell to non-browser clients), and no static Wayback Machine capture of the rendered content was available
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- National Archives Catalog entry (NAID 285136805) lists a deck log for Dominant (AMc-76), part of the Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel logbooks of U.S. Navy ships and stations, covering 1 February-6 July 1945 - consistent with the vessel's DANFS-documented non-commissioned, Fifth Naval District mine-warfare-test assignment during that period.
- Verification
- unverified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-23
- Study period
- 1945
- Limitations
- Archival lead only - confirms a wartime deck log exists for this hull at NARA College Park, which is a plausible primary-source trail for future in-person or FOIA research, but no content of the log itself (materials, conditions, incidents) has been reviewed. Establishes nothing about asbestos.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-dominant-amc76-03
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[4]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
- Abstract and article, AJIM 11(3):359-373
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Peer-reviewed historical study documents that asbestos was used extensively as a fireproofing and insulating material across U.S. naval and merchant shipbuilding during World War II - the general era and program (small commercial boatbuilders converted to Navy auxiliary production, as at Gibbs Gas Engine Co.) under which this vessel was built - and that wartime demand drove unprecedented asbestos utilization in ship construction broadly.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-09-23
- Study period
- 1940s era documented; article published 1987
- Population
- WWII shipyard workers and ship crews (broad class context, not specific to this builder or class)
- Limitations
- Program/era-level scholarly documentation of asbestos use in WWII shipbuilding generally; names no vessel, no builder, and no vessel class. Does not establish that asbestos was used at Gibbs Gas Engine Co. specifically, that it was present aboard this hull, or its quantity, location, condition, or any exposure. Downgraded to context_only (not class_or_era) because no document specific to the Accentor class or to this hull's engineering plant was located.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-dominant-amc76-04
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[5]CourtListener API v4 searches, this record's search ledger (sl-uss-dominant-amc76-04 through -07) [court_record]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-dominant-amc76-04 through sl-uss-dominant-amc76-07
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos litigation located for AMc-76. CourtListener (authenticated v4 API, per-session helper) was searched by both the ship's name and its hull number: an unquoted name search ("USS Dominant", opinions) returned 93 results, of which the first 20 by relevance were reviewed by case name/party and none referenced a Navy minesweeper, mine warfare, or Navy vessel litigation - the matches are word-collision hits on "USS" (as a corporate-name substring, e.g. USS-POSCO Industries) and "dominant" (a common adjective in antitrust/market-power case law, e.g. dominant market position). Exact-phrase hull-number searches ("Dominant" "AMc-76") returned zero results in both the opinion index and the RECAP docket index. A further exact-phrase docket search for "USS Dominant" could not be completed - the fleet-wide shared CourtListener request budget was exhausted mid-session and the run was not retried into the limiter per this batch's standing instruction.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-23
- Study period
- 2026-09-23
- Limitations
- Absence of a located litigation record does not prove no exposure occurred aboard this hull - it reflects what is indexed and searchable, and one planned query (docket-index exact-phrase name search) was not completed due to fleet-wide rate-limiting. Given AM-431/MSO-431's far longer service life (1954-1982), larger crew (74 vs. 17), and Cold War/NATO deployment history, any surviving 'Dominant' asbestos claim is, on the base rates alone, much more likely to belong to that hull than to AMc-76 - this record makes no claim about AM-431/MSO-431.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-dominant-amc76-05