Evidence
7 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-7).
-
[1]DANFS, Harwood (DD-861) (NHHC page; live URL returns 404 - verbatim text via Wayback capture 2024-11-30) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry, specifications block + service narrative (Wayback capture of history.navy.mil page)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: spec block reads 'dp. 2,425; l. 390'6"; b. 41'1"; dr. 18'6"; s. 35 k.; cpl. 367; a. 6 5", 4 40mm., 5 21" tt. 1 h.h., 6 dcp., 2dct.; cl. Gearing.' Launched 22 May 1945 by the Bethlehem Steel Co., San Pedro, Calif.; sponsored by Mrs. Bruce Lawrence Harwood; commissioned 28 September 1945, Comdr. Reid P. Fiala in command. 7th Fleet in Chinese waters and occupation-of-Japan support; return to San Diego 21 February 1947; Mare Island shipyard availability January 1949 for latest antisubmarine equipment; redesignated DDE-861 4 March 1950; homeport Newport, R.I.; first Mediterranean cruise with 6th Fleet, returned 10 November 1950; 3-month South American ASW demonstration from 4 January 1957; FRAM overhaul at New York Navy Yard 2 May 1961 to 2 February 1962 (bridge reconstructed, new torpedo tubes, 3-inch AA guns removed for DASH hangar/deck); Cuban quarantine October 1962; redesignated DD-861 1 July 1963; overhaul and alterations at Norfolk from April 1965; tenth Mediterranean deployment 29 June 1967.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1944-1971
- Population
- Bethlehem San Pedro construction trades 1944-45; crew 1945-1971; yard workers at Mare Island (1949), New York Naval Shipyard (1961-62), Norfolk (1965)
- Limitations
- DANFS documents service history and specifications, not materials or asbestos content; entry ends with 1967 operations (predates transfer and sinking). DANFS does not state a laid-down date - that date rests on NavSource. The 'New York Navy Yard' is the New York Naval Shipyard (Brooklyn); 'Norfolk' is the naval shipyard availability, yard not further specified in the entry.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-harwood-dd861-01
-
[2]NavSource Destroyer Photo Index, USS Harwood (DD-861/DDE-861) - operational and building data (live navsource.org unreachable from this network; Wayback capture 2024-05-25) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource DD-861 page, 'Operational and Building Data' block and Machinery line
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource operational/building data for this hull: laid down by Bethlehem Steel, San Pedro, 29 October 1944; launched 22 May 1945; commissioned 28 September 1945; 'Completed FRAM upgrade December 1961'; decommissioned 17 December 1971; stricken 1 February 1973; transferred to Turkey 17 December 1971 and renamed Kocatepe; 'Sunk in error by Turkish aircraft July 22 1974 during Turkish landings on Cyprus.' Machinery line: '60,000 SHP; Allis Chalmers Turbines, 2 screws' - a non-class-standard turbine builder (class-standard GE per class data); crew 336. Also records the tactical voice radio call sign circa 1968 as 'ASBESTOS' (an administrative call sign, not materials evidence).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1944-1974
- Population
- Construction trades 1944-45; crew 1945-1971; Turkish crew 1971-1974
- Limitations
- Secondary compiled reference, not a government publication; internally inconsistent with the DANFS yard chronology (FRAM 'completed December 1961' vs. DANFS departure from the yard 2 February 1962) and gives the sinking as July 22 vs. the July 21 consensus (NYT, Turkish sources) - conflicts carried in gaps. The 'ASBESTOS' tactical call sign is a callsign-coincidence only and is NOT evidence of asbestos aboard. NavSource does not document materials or asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-harwood-dd861-02
-
[3]New York Times, 'Turks Admit They Sank Own Vessel Off Cyprus,' 25 July 1974 (dateline Ankara, 24 July) [reputable_press]
- Locator
- NYT archive article body, Ankara dateline 24 July 1974
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Contemporaneous press confirming the loss and identity: the Turkish General Staff confirmed its 'American-built destroyer Kocatepe' - 'formerly the American destroyer Harwood,' built 1945 and transferred to the Turkish Navy in December 1971 - was bombed and sunk by a Turkish plane or planes off Paphos, Cyprus, mistaken for part of an invading Greek force; attack Sunday (21 July 1974); 42 survivors on life rafts picked up by an Israeli vessel; initial reports ~80 killed and 110 missing (later consolidated to 54 killed in Turkish accounts).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1974
- Population
- Turkish crew aboard TCG Kocatepe, 21 July 1974
- Limitations
- Contemporaneous reporting with initial casualty estimates later revised; the article's relayed communique wording ('first day of military operation Saturday') conflicts with the Sunday attack it also reports - the 21 July date is carried per the weight of sources. Documents the loss event and identity chain (ex-USS Harwood = TCG Kocatepe), not materials or asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-harwood-dd861-03
-
[4]DANFS spec block (Gearing class; steam plant - via Wayback NHHC capture) + class-file research: Goodrich v. Air & Liquid Systems Corp. omnibus opinion recital (E.D. Va. 2018) + Destroyer History Foundation Bethlehem Steel San Pedro yard page (destroyerhistory.org/destroyers/bethsp/) [other_primary]
- Locator
- DANFS spec block; Goodrich omnibus recital per gearing-class.class.json ev-04; destroyerhistory.org Bethlehem San Pedro builder page
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/design inference for this hull: a 1944-45 Gearing-class destroyer with a four-boiler superheated steam plant (60,000 shp, geared turbines) at the peak of Navy asbestos use would have carried period-standard boiler casing and fireroom insulation, steam-pipe lagging, turbine lagging, valve/flange gaskets and packing, and fireproofing. A published federal omnibus opinion in Goodrich v. Air & Liquid Systems Corp. (E.D. Va., ECF No. 171, 2018) recites an engineering drawing for forced-draft-blower-turbine insulation and lagging for the Sumner-class family of destroyers (the design from which Gearing derived) specifying amosite felts and asbestos cloths - a litigation recital consistent with the era inference. Builder Bethlehem Steel's San Pedro yard (Terminal Island) is documented at yard level as a WWII destroyer builder (4 Gearings: DD-858 through DD-861). The 1961-62 FRAM overhaul and 1965 Norfolk overhaul are documented yard events that under era practice disturbed machinery-space insulation.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1944-1971
- Population
- Bethlehem San Pedro construction trades 1944-45; crew 1945-1971; FRAM (NY Naval Shipyard 1961-62) and Norfolk (1965) yard workers
- Limitations
- Class/era and builder-yard inference only - no ship-specific asbestos record exists for DD-861 in the sources searched. The Goodrich drawing recital is quoted inside a litigation opinion (pleading-stage material for the Sumner family; not an adjudicated finding for this hull); the case itself is corroborated (Goodrich v. John Crane Inc., Civil No. 4:17cv9, E.D. Va., Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen, Sept. 2018, indexed on vLex) while the specific drawing recital is carried per the Gearing class profile's prior reading - the opinion is not in CourtListener's opinion corpus for direct re-verification. Yard-level asbestos scope at San Pedro is undocumented in this record (the yard has no dedicated Atlas entry). NARA RG 19 material specifications not retrieved.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-harwood-dd861-04
-
[5]GAO, Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure, HRD-80-2 (18 October 1979) [gao]
- Locator
- GAO product page HRD-80-2
- Finding type
- gov_survey
- Finding
- GAO documented the Navy's asbestos-protection program: standing policy from 1975 removed asbestos insulation only when damaged or when required for repairs, modified in 1979 to selective replacement in high-maintenance areas - meaning original-era insulation typically remained in place for decades unless a yard period disturbed it. Context for interpreting Harwood's documented yard periods (Mare Island 1949; New York Naval Shipyard FRAM 1961-62; Norfolk 1965).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1979
- Population
- Navy shipyard workers; asbestos program review
- Limitations
- Program-level documentation, not hull-specific; establishes Navy-wide policy context only. Full text blocked to automated fetch (HTTP 403) - content via product-page description. Harwood transferred to Turkey in 1971, before the 1975 policy period described.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-harwood-dd861-05
-
[6]CourtListener API v4 sweep: '"USS Harwood"' (type=o and type=r), '"DD-861"' (type=o), '"DDE-861"' (type=o), '"Harwood" asbestos Navy ship' (type=o) [court_record]
- Locator
- CourtListener API v4 search endpoint, exact-phrase and hull-number queries, 2026-09-28 (cl-auth-search.py, authenticated)
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- CourtListener API v4 sweep returned no qualifying litigation for this hull: '"USS Harwood"' returned 0 in opinions (type=o) and 0 in RECAP dockets (type=r); '"DD-861"' returned 0 in opinions and 11 docket hits that are code collisions (insurance/debt-collection/MDL dockets - none vessel- or asbestos-related); '"DDE-861"' returned 0 in opinions; '"Harwood" asbestos Navy ship' returned 0 in opinions. No asbestos litigation, other litigation, or vessel-name collision naming this ship was located in CourtListener's corpus.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 2026-09-28
- Population
- n/a
- Limitations
- A negative CourtListener result is a first-class negative finding for the indexed corpus only: state-court dockets, non-digitized filings, and litigation not naming the vessel in indexed text are outside its coverage. 'Harwood' is a common surname; bare-name queries were not run because they cannot distinguish the vessel at corpus scale - hull-qualified and exact-phrase queries are the discriminators used. The 11 'DD-861' docket hits were classified as code collisions from case names (none plausibly vessel-related).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-harwood-dd861-06
-
[7]NARA RG 19 (Bureau of Ships) General Information Books and contract specifications - archival lead for hull-level material specifications [other_primary]
- Locator
- NARA RG 19; search-ledger negative results for this vessel
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No class-wide BuShips material schedule, ship-specific asbestos survey, or digitized contract specification for DD-861 was located in the sources searched. NARA RG 19 'General Information Books' (per-vessel BuShips material specifications) and FRAM/1965 yard work packages are the identified archival leads for hull-level material evidence.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 2026-09-28
- Population
- n/a
- Limitations
- Absence of a located record does not prove absence - BuShips contract correspondence and SCB/FRAM work packages likely sit in undigitized NARA RG 19 series and NAVSEA inactive-ship files; no retrieval was performed for this hull.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-harwood-dd861-07