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 (DANFS), Vol. III, p. 405, 'Huron' (PF-19 entry) - verbatim transcription (live NHHC DANFS pages 404 at all candidate URLs; hazegray.org down; transcription live at losthistory.net and verified VERBATIM against the archived hazegray.org capture at web.archive.org/web/20160911054315/http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/patrol/pf19.htm) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS Vol. III p. 405, Huron (PF-19) entry - spec block + full service narrative
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull (the fifth Huron; Huron IV and V named for the city of Huron, South Dakota): originally PG-127; launched under Maritime Commission contract by American Shipbuilding Co., Cleveland, Ohio, 3 July 1943; sponsored by Mrs. J. S. Tschetter, wife of the mayor of Huron, S. Dak.; acquired and commissioned 7 September 1944, Lt. Comdr. W. W. Collins, USCG, in command. Manned by a Coast Guard crew; shakedown off Bermuda October-November 1944; sailed with a convoy from Norfolk to North Africa 1 December 1944; rammed by SS James Fenimore Cooper shortly after midnight 8 December while rounding up separated merchant ships; engine room flooded but damage control kept her afloat; after temporary repairs, towed through rough weather by Choctaw, arriving Bermuda 15 December 1944; taken to Charleston for conversion to a sonar-training ship; arrived Key West 22 February 1945 for Fleet Sonar School operations; provided technical and tactical antisubmarine training for the remainder of the war; departed Key West 19 March 1946 for Norfolk; decommissioned 19 April 1946; sold to United Dock Corp. 15 May 1947.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-04
- Study period
- 1943-1947
- Population
- American Shipbuilding Cleveland construction trades 1943-44; USCG wartime crew (complement 190); Fleet Sonar School trainees 1945-46; Charleston conversion trades 1944-45
- Limitations
- DANFS documents construction, service, and disposal - not materials or asbestos content. The entry ends at the 1947 sale; the Brazilian resale/passenger career (Jose Marcelino) and 1965 scrapping come only from NavSource. 'Charleston' names the city, not a specific facility - the naval-shipyard conversion-site reading is inference (gaps). Mirror transcription cited because every live NHHC candidate URL 404s and hazegray.org is unreachable; the transcription was verified verbatim against the 2016-09-11 Wayback capture of the original hazegray page (archive.org was intermittently offline this session but the capture retrieved cleanly).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-huron-01
-
[2]NavSource Online: Patrol Frigate Photo Archive, 'Huron (PF-19), ex-PG-127' - chronology, specifications, commanding-officer listing (verified live) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 12/08019.htm - chronology block, specifications block, commanding-officers table, photo captions
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource record for this hull: MC type T. S2-S2-AQ1, Tacoma class; laid down 1 May 1943 as patrol gunboat PG-127 under Maritime Commission contract by American Shipbuilding Co., Cleveland, Ohio; reclassified patrol frigate PF-19 on 15 April 1943; launched 3 July 1943; delivered and commissioned USS Huron (PF-19) 7 September 1944; decommissioned 19 April 1946; sold for scrap 15 May 1947 to United Dock Corp. of New York; resold in 1947 to Brazil for use as a coastal passenger ship and renamed Jose Marcelino; scrapped in Brazil in 1965. Call sign Nan-Zebra-Victor-Able. Specifications: 1,430 t. (lt), 2,415 t. (fl); 303'11" x 37'6" x 13'8"; 20.3 kts; complement 190; three 3"/50 DP mounts, two twin 40mm, nine 20mm, 2 dct, 8 dcp, 1 hedgehog; propulsion two 3-drum express-type boilers, two 5,500-shp Koppers Co. vertical triple-expansion engines, two shafts. Commanding officer: LCDR Walter Weidner Collins, USCG, 7 September 1944 - consistent with the USCG-manned status of the class in U.S. WWII service. Photo captions credit the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes and date one view 10 March 1945.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-04
- Study period
- 1943-1965
- Population
- USCG wartime crew 1944-46; Brazilian civilian crew/passengers 1947-65; Brazilian scrapping workers 1965
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer-maintained archival compilation, not a government source; its chronology agrees with DANFS where they overlap and extends coverage (laid-down date, call sign, engine manufacturer, Brazilian disposal path) where DANFS is silent. The 1965 Brazil scrapping and Jose Marcelino passenger career are corroborated by shipbuildinghistory's PF table (second secondary compilation) but unverified against a Brazilian primary source (gaps). No stricken date listed. Documents no asbestos information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-huron-02
-
[3]Richard A. Russell, 'Project HULA: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan' (Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy, Washington, 1997; ISBN 0-945274-35-1) - official NHC monograph based on NARA and Russian naval archives [other_primary]
- Locator
- Project HULA pp. 21-23 (program narrative incl. Great Lakes outfitting and defect discussion) and transfer appendix (28-hull list; PF-19 absent)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Official NHC history of the frigate program frames this hull's construction context: the Maritime Commission contracted for 69 frigates on 8 December 1942; five Great Lakes shipyards accounted for 39, and Ohio's American Shipbuilding Company added six more (75 U.S. hulls). Winter and spring ice prevented Lakes-built frigates from passing the Sault Ste. Marie locks, so hulls were floated on pontoons down the Mississippi River for outfitting at New Orleans or Houston, often doubling completion time. Yards delivered frigates in 'shockingly incomplete condition' (Morison); no frigate was ready for service before 1944; class-wide defects included bilge keels cracking in rough seas/cold weather, deckhouse-to-deck weld failures, inadequate ventilation, and chronic triple-expansion-engine problems - consistent with this hull's 14-month launch-to-commissioning interval (July 1943 - September 1944). Of the 28 frigates transferred to the Soviet navy under HULA, the appendix lists every hull by name - this hull is NOT among them (no Soviet service, no EK designator).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-04
- Study period
- 1942-1945
- Population
- Great Lakes construction trades 1943-44; New Orleans/Houston outfitting trades 1943-44
- Limitations
- Program/class-level documentation only - describes the frigate program and her construction cohort, not this hull's specific materials, outfitting yard, or condition. The absence of PF-19 from the 28-ship transfer appendix is a negative for Soviet service, not positive evidence about materials aboard.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-huron-03
-
[4]GAO, 'Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure,' HRD-80-2 (Oct 18, 1979) [gao]
- Locator
- GAO product page HRD-80-2 (automated fetch blocked, HTTP 403, this session)
- Finding type
- gov_survey
- Finding
- GAO documented that the Navy used asbestos insulation extensively aboard ships and did not begin substituting alternative insulation materials until the early 1970s - spanning this hull's entire construction period (1943-44) and U.S. service era (1944-46).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-04
- Study period
- 1979
- Population
- Navy shipyard workers; asbestos program review
- Limitations
- Program-level documentation; supports era context only, not any fact specific to this hull. gao.gov returned HTTP 403 to automated fetch this session (intermittent block; the product page was retrievable in prior batch sessions) - content via the product-page description retrieved previously.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-huron-04
-
[5]Era inference built on: NavSource specifications (two 3-drum express-type boilers; two Koppers Co. vertical triple-expansion engines, 5,500 shp, two shafts; MC type T. S2-S2-AQ1 built to merchant standards); DANFS spec block (Tacoma class); NHC HULA pp. 21-23 (River-class-derived merchant-standard design; Great Lakes construction cohort); GAO HRD-80-2 era documentation (see ev-04); Atlas shipyards.json yard records [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource specifications block; DANFS spec block + Charleston conversion narrative; HULA pp. 21-23; GAO HRD-80-2 product page; shipyard-exposure-map/client/src/data/shipyards.json yard_id charleston-naval-shipyard (tier 2; builder yard absent - gaps)
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- A Maritime Commission-contract patrol frigate launched at an American Shipbuilding yard on the Great Lakes in 1943 to the T. S2-S2-AQ1 merchant-standard design, with a twin-boiler steam plant driving two vertical triple-expansion engines, sits squarely inside the era in which naval and merchant steam vessels carried asbestos insulation throughout the engineering spaces. Era-standard applications for a vessel of this type and period: boiler and steam-drum insulation; steam-line lagging between firerooms and engine room; valve and flange gaskets; machinery packing; fireproofing; and deck coverings. The confined fireroom/engine-room volume of a 303-foot frigate concentrates any such materials; the December 1944 collision flooded the engine room outright, and the ensuing repair/conversion period is the likeliest documented window of insulation disturbance aboard. Yard-level documentation strengthens the exposure pathway without establishing it aboard: her documented conversion yard (Charleston Naval Shipyard, Atlas tier 2) is asbestos-documented at yard level; her builder yard (American Shipbuilding Co., Cleveland) is absent from the Atlas shipyards dataset entirely.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-04
- Study period
- 1943-1965
- Population
- AmShip Cleveland construction trades 1943-44; Gulf outfitting trades 1943-44; USCG crew 1944-46; Charleston conversion trades 1944-45; Fleet Sonar School trainees; Brazilian crew/scrapping workers 1947-65
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no hull-specific insulation survey, material list, work package, or abatement record located for PF-19. Names era-standard applications, not confirmed installed materials. No quantity. Yard-dataset tier ratings document asbestos at yards, not aboard this hull; and the Charleston yard link itself rests on DANFS naming the city, not the facility. The collision-repair and sonar-conversion scopes are undocumented at material level. Brazilian-era (1947-65) material condition entirely undocumented.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-huron-05
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[6]Batch-8500 search ledger (this record): DANFS transcription (losthistory.net, live; verified verbatim against Wayback hazegray capture); NavSource PF-19; NHC Project HULA monograph; NVR; MARAD VHDB; GAO product page (blocked); CourtListener; USCG Historian's Office (blocked); shipbuildinghistory compilation; BGSU HCGL; USNI photo archive; secondary web litigation sweep [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-huron-01 through sl-uss-huron-14
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos litigation, ACM survey, abatement contract, or hazmat disclosure located. CourtListener sweep (4 base + 4 justified asbestos-qualified variants, authenticated v4 API via cl-auth-search.py/cl-patient-search.py, 2026-10-04): 'USS Huron' opinion count 7 (all 7 inspected) and docket count 240 (first page inspected) - all name collisions (Ohio maritime and tax cases, Huron-person and Huron-place tokens; no ship, no asbestos). 'PF-19' opinion count 4,377 and docket count 68,403 - pure token collisions on 'pf-' docket codes and 'P.F.' name fragments; the hull-number token has zero discriminative power. Asbestos-qualified variants (all four bases overflowed their 20-hit page on high-collision names): '"USS Huron" asbestos' opinion count 0 - decisive: no asbestos opinion names the hull; '"USS Huron" asbestos' docket count 46 (47 hits retrieved, all 3 pages inspected) - genuine asbestos dockets surfaced (MDL-875 master, Krik v. BP America E.D. Pa. 2:11-cv-63473, Agee v. Chesterton D. Del., Peninsula Pathology 4th Cir., W.R. Grace and Motors Liquidation bankruptcies) but 'Huron' is a token collision in every one (Port Huron/Huron County/Huron-person tokens), none naming this or any vessel; '"PF-19" asbestos' opinion count 80 (all 4 pages inspected) - all pf-code collisions, no ship match; '"PF-19" asbestos' docket count 5,405 - first-page all pf-19 docket-code collisions including the MDL-676 ship-asbestos master docket, deeper paging pointless on a structurally non-discriminating token. Secondary web litigation sweep surfaced only law-firm marketing listicles naming the hull generically - excluded by source policy.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-04
- Study period
- 2026-10-04
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - the hull's Brazilian passenger-carrier career (1947-65) leaves a long undocumented material window, and any disposal-path abatement at the 1965 Brazilian scrapping is unrecorded in public sources. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-huron-06
-
[7]NARA custody per NavSource research FAQ + NARA records schedule N1-038-89-001 (World War II War Diaries microfilm, WNRC accession 38-62-0585, permanent retention); BGSU Historical Collections of the Great Lakes finding aid GLMS-0075 'American Ship Building Company and Predecessors records, 1867-1989' (https://lib.bgsu.edu/findingaids/repositories/4/resources/479 - verified live); U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive image 9846663 'US Navy Patrol Frigate USS Huron (PF-19) circa WWII' (https://photos.usni.org/content/9846663jpg - verified live); MARAD Vessel History Database (no record for this hull - 'Huron' search returns only HURON (9999), a river/harbor tug); Naval Vessel Register (no PF-19 entry - pre-1987 disposals outside coverage); USCG Historian's Office (site returns HTTP 403 to automated fetch) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NARA RG 24 deck-log holdings (College Park); NHC war-diaries microfilm schedule N1-038-89-001; lib.bgsu.edu finding aid GLMS-0075; photos.usni.org image 9846663; history.uscg.mil (HTTP 403); vesselhistory.marad.dot.gov 'Huron' search (1 non-matching tug entry, Detail/8539); nvr.navy.mil SHIPDETAILS/PF19.HTML (renders index page)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Undigitized primary records for this hull exist but were not retrievable online: RG 24 ship deck logs for 1943-46 are held by the NARA Textual Reference Branch (College Park), and WWII war diaries/action reports survive on the Naval Historical Center microfilm series (permanent retention) - these cover her Bermuda shakedown, the December 1944 collision and tow, the Charleston conversion, the Key West Fleet Sonar School tour, and decommissioning - the windows in which hull-level material/work documentation would sit. Builder-side records survive at the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes (BGSU): the American Ship Building Company and Predecessors records (GLMS-0075, 569 cubic feet + 60 microfilm reels) hold naval architectural drawings for warships and corporate records that may include the PG-127/PF-19 drawing sets and construction papers. The U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive holds a WWII image of this hull (9846663, verified live). The USCG Historian's Office site is HTTP-403-blocked to automated fetches this session - blocked, not negative; USCG manning is independently ship-confirmed via DANFS (Collins, USCG, in command) and NavSource's CO listing. MARAD's Vessel History Database returns no entry for this hull (its sole 'Huron' is a 9999-coded river/harbor tug). The NVR carries no PF-19 entry (disposed 1947; pre-1987 disposals outside NVR coverage).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-04
- Study period
- 1943-1947
- Population
- WWII USCG crew; Fleet Sonar School trainees 1945-46
- Limitations
- Archival-lead row: identifies where primary records likely sit; none were examined. Brazilian-era passenger-service records (1947-65) and scrapping documentation are held in Brazilian, not U.S., repositories and were outside this pass.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-huron-07