Evidence
6 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-6).
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[1]DANFS, Ira Jeffery (DE-63/APD-44) entry (namesake biography, spec block, service narrative, disposal) - canonical NHHC URL, live page returns 404; entry verified verbatim via Wayback capture 2024-05-24 (NHHC page published 2015-07-22); same text mirrored at losthistory.net/hazegray/danfs/escorts/de63.txt (1968 ed., Vol. 3 p.456 transcription) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry, spec block + service narrative (Wayback 2024-05-24 capture of canonical NHHC URL)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: laid down as Jeffery 13 February 1943 by Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard, Inc., Hingham, Mass.; launched 15 May 1943; sponsored by Mrs. D. C. Jeffery, mother of the namesake; renamed Ira Jeffery 29 July 1943; commissioned 15 August 1943, Lt. Comdr. R. A. Fitch in command. Shakedown off Bermuda and Casco Bay; Naval Torpedo Station Quonset, R.I. - experiments with noise-makers against the German acoustic torpedo; first Atlantic convoy departed New York 5 November 1943; seven Atlantic troop convoys to Northern Ireland/Great Britain over the next year. Returned to Charleston 22 October 1944; joined a convoy of cranes, powerplants, and tugs to European invasion ports; return crossing 20 December 1944 attacked by a German submarine which sank an LST and damaged Fogg (DE-57); Ira Jeffery assisted Fogg and escorted her to the Azores. Returned to the U.S. 1 February 1945; two weeks with experimental mines in Chesapeake Bay; entered New York Naval Shipyard 15 February 1945 for conversion to a high-speed transport ('installation of troop quarters and extensive alterations'); emerged May 1945 as APD-44 (officially reclassified 23 February 1945); departed 12 May for Chesapeake Bay shakedown; sailed 25 May with carrier Antietam via Panama Canal to Pearl Harbor, arriving 18 June 1945; Hawaiian training; San Diego 23 July; underwater-demolition-team training; sailed 16 August for forward areas via Eniwetok, Ulithi, Manila; demolition exercises in Lingayen Gulf; UDT beach reconnaissance at Wakayama, Japan, before occupation landings; San Diego 20 November 1945; Panama Canal to Philadelphia (arrived 8 December) for repairs; Jacksonville; decommissioned Green Cove Springs 18 June 1946; Atlantic Reserve Fleet until struck from the Navy List 1 June 1960; 'sunk during tests in July 1962.' Spec block: dp. 1,400; l. 306'; b. 37'; dr. 9'5"; s. 24 k.; cpl. 186; a. 3 3", 4 1.1", 8 20mm., 2 dct., 8 dcp., 1 dcp. (h.h.), 3 21" tt.; cl. Buckley.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-25
- Study period
- 1943-1962
- Population
- Bethlehem-Hingham construction trades 1943; wartime crew (design complement 186 per DANFS)
- Limitations
- DANFS documents identity, service history, and specifications - not materials or asbestos content. The New York Naval Shipyard conversion and Philadelphia repair periods are documented as events; the work scope performed is not described. Live NHHC page returns 404 (standing fleet-wide link rot per BATCH-01); the canonical URL is verified via Wayback capture.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ira-jeffery-apd44-01
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[2]USS Ira Jeffery ship-submitted 'War History' document dated 8 November 1945 (4-page typescript scan hosted on NavSource photo archive) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource DE-63 page, 'War History' scan (06063wh.jpg), 4 pp., dated 8 November 1945
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Ship-authored history for this hull, dated 8 November 1945: confirms construction at Hingham by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., commissioning 15 August 1943 under LCDR Robert A. Fitch; 'one of the first ships in the Atlantic Fleet to be equipped with FOXR gear' with extensive experiments at the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station, Quonset; convoy-escort duty between New York and Northern Ireland 'without the loss of a single ship under her escort'; November 1944 convoy TG 27.4 of cranes/powerplants/tugs to invasion ports; 20 December 1944 submarine attack (LST sunk, USS Fogg damaged) after which Ira Jeffery searched for the attacker and escorted Fogg to the Azores, a towing attempt to the U.S. abandoned in heavy seas; February 1945 entry to New York Naval Shipyard for conversion including troop quarters and landing-craft additions; post-conversion Pacific operations with UDTs including Subic Bay, Lingayen Gulf demolition operations, and Nagoya-area service.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-25
- Study period
- 1943-1945
- Population
- Wartime crew
- Limitations
- Primary document (ship-submitted history) hosted on a volunteer photo-archive site - provenance is a scan, not a repository copy; the authoritative copy resides in NARA WWII war-diary/ship-history holdings. Legibility is scan-limited. Documents service events, not materials or asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ira-jeffery-apd44-02
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[3]Bureau of Ships, Ships' Data, U.S. Naval Vessels, Vol. 1 (Jan 1945), DE design-group table (shipscribe.com scan) + NavSource DE-63/APD-44 spec blocks [other_primary]
- Locator
- SDB1945v1 pp. 234-235 design-group table; navsource.net/archives/06/063.htm and /10/04/04044.htm spec blocks
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Class/era design documentation: the Buckley class is the TE (turbo-electric) destroyer-escort design - one of only two DE groups with a full steam plant - per BuShips Ships' Data 1945 groups 2-3: 2 'D' express-type boilers at 435 psi/750F superheat feeding GE turbine-generators and electric motors, 12,000 shp, 2 shafts, 23.6 kt; NavSource's APD-44 spec block reads 2 Combustion Engineering 'D' Express boilers (maker conflicts with the navypedia block map's Foster Wheeler attribution for the DE-51-98 group - carried in gaps). A 1943 steam-plant vessel of this design would have carried period-standard asbestos applications: boiler insulation, steam-line lagging, turbine insulation, valve and flange gaskets, machinery packing, electrical insulation, fireproofing, and deck coverings.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-25
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Population
- Bethlehem-Hingham construction trades 1943; crew 1943-46; embarked troops up to 162 (APD design figure)
- Limitations
- Class/era and design inference only - NOT a ship-specific finding. No hull material schedule, contract document, or survey located (NARA RG19 General Information Books are the archival lead). Does not establish asbestos presence, quantity, or any individual's exposure aboard this hull.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ira-jeffery-apd44-03
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[4]DANFS-documented yard periods for this hull (New York Naval Shipyard conversion Feb-May 1945; Philadelphia Naval Shipyard repairs Dec 1945) + Atlas shipyard dataset records 'brooklyn-navy-yard' (tier 3) and 'philadelphia-naval-shipyard' (tier 3) [other_primary]
- Locator
- DANFS service narrative (1945); shipyards.json records brooklyn-navy-yard, philadelphia-naval-shipyard
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Yard-event documentation: DANFS records this hull in New York Naval Shipyard (Brooklyn) from 15 February to early May 1945 for conversion to APD-44 - 'installation of troop quarters and extensive alterations' - and at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard from 8 December 1945 for repairs. Both yards are tier-3 asbestos-documented in the Atlas shipyard dataset (Brooklyn: Kaylo pipe insulation documented, consolidated NY asbestos-litigation record; Philadelphia: multiple named ACM products incl. Kaylo, Unibestos, Thermasil). Conversion-era work of the described scope (troop quarters, extensive alterations, landing-craft davits, armament change to 1x5"/38) would era-typically have disturbed existing hull insulation and installed new ACM in worked spaces - inference, not documentation.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-25
- Study period
- 1945-02 to 1945-05; 1945-12
- Population
- New York Naval Shipyard and Philadelphia Naval Shipyard trades 1945; conversion-yard workers
- Limitations
- The yard periods are ship-specific documented events, but the asbestos characterization is yard-level and era-level inference: no conversion work package, material schedule, or asbestos order for this hull was located. Does not establish that ACM was installed, removed, or disturbed aboard this specific vessel.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ira-jeffery-apd44-04
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[5]CourtListener API v4 (authenticated batch pipeline, 2026-09-25): opinion search "Ira Jeffery" (3 hits), RECAP docket search "Ira Jeffery" (8 hits), "APD-44" (2 opinions / 5 dockets), "DE-63" (137 opinions) + "DE-63" asbestos (1 opinion) - all name/identifier collisions [court_record]
- Locator
- CourtListener v4 search endpoint, type=o and type=r, queries per search_ledger sl-05/06/07/08
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- Litigation sweep for this hull: "Ira Jeffery" returned 3 opinion hits (Jeffery v. Sheehan, Me. 1937; Jeffery v. Hursh, Mich. 1880 x2 - surname litigants predating the ship) and 8 docket hits (bankruptcy and civil dockets pairing an 'Ira' party with unrelated 'Jeffery' text). "APD-44" returned 2 opinions (Bass Enterprises v. Mosaic Potash, N.M. 2010 - potash-royalty matter; Austin civil-service case, Tex. 2015) and 5 dockets (civil-rights, personal-injury, Deepwater Horizon MDL - matched on 'APD' string fragments). "DE-63" returned 137 opinion hits dominated by '[DE-63]' docket-entry citations; the asbestos-qualified opinion query returned 1 hit, Aurand v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. (N.D. Ind. 2011) - a railroad matter, not the vessel. No opinion or docket names the vessel; no asbestos litigation was located.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-25
- Study period
- 2026-09-25 (sweep date)
- Limitations
- A no-hit sweep does not prove the hull never appeared in litigation: unindexed state-court filings and non-digitized records fall outside coverage, and the 137 DE-63 opinion hits were triaged by pattern and the asbestos-qualified query rather than full-text review. The DE-63 docket-index sweeps (bare and asbestos-qualified) were pacing-blocked by the fleet-wide CourtListener budget at session end - logged incomplete in the search ledger. Nothing here establishes or defeats an exposure claim.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ira-jeffery-apd44-05
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[6]Batch-2432 search ledger (this record): NHHC DANFS canonical URL via Wayback; NavSource DE/APD registry pages + ship-submitted war history scan; NVR probe; CourtListener name and hull sweeps; NARA RG19/RG24 leads; marketing-list sweep (asbestos-ships.com, simmonsfirm.com, mesotheliomaveterans.org, freeasbestostesting.com list 'USS Ira Jeffery' - banned source class, presence only) [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-ira-jeffery-apd44-01 through sl-uss-ira-jeffery-apd44-11
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no hull ACM survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, museum record, or docketed asbestos case naming APD-44 or DE-63 was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). The hull was sunk as a torpedo target in July 1962 - a pre-regulation disposal that generated no hazmat documentation; no surveyable artifact exists.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-25
- Study period
- 2026-09-25
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - a 1943 steam-plant escort/transport is era-consistent with ACM, and a 1962 target sinking left no modern documentation trail. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-ira-jeffery-apd44-06
