Evidence
8 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-8).
-
[1]research packet jz-packet.md (10 sources cited) [nhhc_danfs]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED — real identity: USS *Lake* — http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/l/lake.html (loaded NHHC DANFS)
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-lake-de301-pkt-jz-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, Lake (DE-301), NHHC (published 2016-04-18; retrieved via Wayback capture 2025-02-02 - live history.navy.mil page returns 404; hazegray transcription cross-checked and found to carry three date/name errors, noted in gaps) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry 'Lake (DE-301)' - namesake biography, spec block, service narrative, disposition
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: laid down 22 April 1943 by Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, Calif.; launched 18 August 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Carol M. Feldman; commissioned 5 February 1944, Lt. Comdr. A. D. Weeks, Jr. in command. Spec block: Evarts class, 1,140 t, 289'5", 35'1" beam, 8'3" draft, 21 kt, complement 156, 3x3in + 4x1.1in + 9x20mm, 8 depth-charge projectors, 1 dcp (h.h.), 2 dct. Service: sailed San Francisco 11 April 1944 escorting convoy to Hawaii (arrived 20 April); convoy to Marshall Islands 23 June; sortied Eniwetok 5 July with hunter-killer group for antisubmarine patrols off the Marianas during the conquest of Saipan and liberation of Guam; cleared Eniwetok 10 August with Reynolds (DE-42) and Donaldson (DE-44) escorting Montpelier (CL-57) to Pearl Harbor (arrived 15 August); Marshalls run with two merchantmen - picked up two Japanese from a raft near Wotje, turned over to the Army at Kwajalein 2 September; escorted transports to the Palaus for the Peleliu invasion (arrived 21 September), escort duty in area for several weeks; November - screened the fueling group servicing the fast carrier task force during the invasion of the Philippines, remaining off Leyte until heading for the Bonins 15 February 1945 for the Iwo Jima invasion; after Iwo Jima screened the task group supplying TF 58 during Okinawa operations, shuttling to Ulithi escorting empty oilers; 8 August ordered to escort and give antisubmarine protection to 12 oilers and one merchantman to a rendezvous close off Japan; returned to San Francisco 13 October; decommissioned at Mare Island 3 December 1945; sold 14 December 1946 to Puget Sound Navigation Co., Seattle, Wash., for scrapping. Two battle stars for WWII service. Namesake: John Ervin Lake, born 22 October 1910 in Chicago, Ill.; enlisted 13 April 1928; warranted Acting Pay Clerk 16 September 1940 and assigned to Salt Lake City (CA-25); reported to Arizona (BB-39) 20 September 1940; killed in action aboard Arizona during the Pearl Harbor attack 7 December 1941.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Population
- Mare Island Navy Yard construction trades 1943-44; USN crew 1944-45 (design complement 156)
- Limitations
- DANFS documents construction, specifications, and service history - not materials or asbestos content. Entry does not state a stricken date (NavSource carries 19 December 1945, logged in gaps). Live NHHC page returns 404 on fetch; text retrieved via Wayback capture of the canonical URL. The hazegray transcription of this entry contains three errors against the NHHC text (commissioned '6 February', sortied '6 July', namesake born '1920') - NHHC text carried.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lake-de301-01
-
[3]USS Lake (DE-301) official ship's history submitted by the commanding officer - cover letter DE301/A12-1 Serial 353, 'Ship's History for Press Release,' U.S.S. Lake (DE301), 22 September 1945, signed A. D. Weekes, Jr. (scan hosted by NavSource Naval History) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource-hosted scan 06301wh.jpg (cover letter + 3-page history), hosted from NavSource DE-301 index page
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Ship-submitted war history for this hull (facsimile transcribed from the NavSource-hosted scan): commissioned 5 February 1944 at Mare Island Navy Yard, A. D. Weekes, Jr., USNR commanding; shakedown out of San Diego 25 February-20 March; 'a diesel-driven, short-hulled Destroyer Escort' and fourth ship of Destroyer Escort Division 45 commissioned; departed San Francisco 10 April escorting two merchant ships for Pearl Harbor; submarine-training duty with other escorts and submarines near Pearl Harbor during May-June; sortied Pearl Harbor with a merchant convoy for Eniwetok, arriving 4 July; departed the next day with three escorts of her division in company with USS Hoggatt Bay (CVE-75) as a hunter-killer group conducting anti-submarine warfare east of the Marianas along shipping lanes during the conquest of Saipan and Guam (the history credits an escort of the group - not Lake - with two submarine kills); 9 August ordered back to Pearl as escort for Montpelier (CL-57), then returned forward with two merchants for Kwajalein, picking up two Japanese from a raft off Wotje; 2 September with three escorts of her division convoyed transports bearing Palau garrison forces to Seadler Harbor, Manus (equator crossed 5 September ~161E, arrived 7 September); 15 September departed for Kossol Passage, stationed in the screen line west of the Peleliu transport area; convoyed seven APAs to Hollandia evacuating the first Peleliu wounded; then with Crowley (DE-303) and three train ships for Tulagi carrying evacuated First Marine Division units; escorted Kadashan Bay (CVE-76); 12 November escorted three CVEs to Ulithi; assigned to Logistic Support Group TG 30.8 - sortied 18 November with two CVEs and another escort to the fueling areas east of Leyte, ferrying depleted oilers to Ulithi; 17-18 December typhoon broke off fueling operations (winds ~70 kt, barometer 28.40) - 'the same storm in which three destroyers were foundered' - Lake emerged undamaged; the CortDiv 45 division commander shifted his pennant to Lake 29 December until early March; 1 February 1945 attached to Fifth Fleet TG 30.8 (Rear Adm. Beary), escorting six fleet oilers to fueling areas for the Iwo Jima operation and joining TF 58 elements; 28 February Lake and Donaldson (DE-44) detached to Iwo Jima to bring back two ammunition ships; Okinawa campaign - continued TG 30.8 logistics with Ulithi oiler shuttles; early June typhoon (winds 'well over 100 knots,' barometer 28.16) again left Lake with no storm damage; 5 August sortied with TG 30.8 elements for the Empire strikes until operations ceased 15 August; designated to supply logistics for the occupation of Korea; 4 September ordered to escort one oiler to Jinsen, Korea - via Okinawa, arrived outer anchorage 19 September after transiting a heavily mined area at night in heavy rain (~100-yard visibility, ~102 Allied mines sunk in the preceding week); after fueling Seventh Fleet units in the Yellow Sea, received orders to return to the West Coast for decommissioning - at that time the ship had traveled ~110,000 miles, fired ~5,500 rounds of ammunition, and sustained no damage or casualty.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1944-1945
- Population
- USN crew 1944-45 (design complement 156; wartime complements per NavSource 15/183)
- Limitations
- Primary facsimile (CO-submitted press-release history) hosted on a volunteer archive - content transcribed from the scan image; a few tokens are uncertain under image transcription (e.g., the division commander's surname) and individual figures (~110,000 miles, ~5,500 rounds) are the ship's own wartime account, not independently audited. Documents service history only - nothing on materials or asbestos aboard.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lake-de301-02
-
[4]NavSource Online Destroyer Escort Photo Archive, USS Lake (DE-301) page - spec block (GMT diesel-electric tandem motor drive, short hull, 3in guns), building/operational data, command roster, captioned USN photographs + Evarts-class design article 'The Evarts / Fighting DEs' by Robert P. Sables (volunteer archive; lead-level) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource DE-301 page, 'Building and Operational Data' block, spec block, commanding-officers table, photo captions 0630102-0630110, 'Lake History' links
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Photo-archive detail corroborating and extending DANFS: GMT type designation (4 GM Model 16-278A diesel engines, electric drive, 6,000 shp, 2 screws); complement roster 15 officers / 183 enlisted; building/operational data adds stricken from the NVR 19 December 1945 and confirms decommissioned at Mare Island Navy Yard 3 December 1945 'after 1 year and 10 months of service' and sale to Puget Sound Navigation Co. 14 December 1946; command roster shows commissioning CO Lcdr. Arthur D. Weekes, Jr., USNR (5 Feb 1944 - 14 Oct 1945) relieved by Lcdr. Soloman Ribakoff, USNR (decommissioning CO, 14 Oct - 3 Dec 1945); captioned USN photographs show Lake on the Mare Island building ways 2 July 1943 alongside sister Lyman (DE-302), christening 18 August 1943 (Radm. W. L. Friedell, shipyard commandant, present), fitting out January-April 1944 with Crowley (DE-303) and Rall (DE-304) at adjacent berths, and an April 1944 funnel view captioned 'the arrangement of the exhaust pipes inside her funnel betray her diesel power plant.' Awards ribbons: Combat Action Ribbon (retroactive), American Campaign, Asiatic-Pacific with 2 stars, WWII Victory. Sables's class essay confirms Evarts as the GMT (diesel-electric) DE design, 97 hulls built 1942-45 across Boston, Mare Island, Puget Sound, and Philadelphia navy yards, 65 USN-retained and 32 transferred to the Royal Navy (Captain class).
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Population
- Mare Island construction trades 1943-44; commissioning/decommissioning crews
- Limitations
- Volunteer-maintained photo archive - lead-level documentation, not an official record; roster and caption details are unverified against underlying USN/NHHC/NARA originals. Complement 15/183 conflicts with the DANFS spec block's 156 (carried in gaps). The stricken date is NavSource-only against the silent DANFS narrative. Nothing on materials aboard.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lake-de301-03
-
[5]Evarts-class GMT design data (DANFS spec block; NavSource spec block + Sables class essay; diesel-electric DE plant per Atlas class-profile analog cannon-class.class.json) + Atlas shipyards.json record 'mare-island-naval-shipyard' (tier-2 yard: documented asbestos-era products and facility ACM records) [other_primary]
- Locator
- DANFS + NavSource spec blocks (GMT plant); shipyards.json record 'mare-island-naval-shipyard' (ev-mare-island-01, asbestos_products_documented)
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/design inference for a diesel-electric escort built at Mare Island Navy Yard in 1943-44: the GMT machinery plant - four General Motors 16-278A diesel engines with tandem electric-motor drive, 2 screws, 6,000 shp, ~21 kt - has NO propulsion boilers and no steam system, so the heavy steam-ship asbestos categories (boiler lagging, steam-line insulation) do not apply. Plausible period applications concentrate in diesel exhaust/muffler insulation, gaskets and packing, electrical insulation, deck coverings, accommodation insulation, and friction linings on deck machinery. Builder-yard context: Mare Island Naval Shipyard is documented in the Atlas yard dataset (tier 2) - the 1998 disposal/reuse EIS-EIR records asbestos-containing material in shipyard buildings and asbestos among industrial wastes, and the yard's documented-products list includes Unibestos, Marinite, Transite, Kaylo, Careytemp, Gold Bond, Super 66, pump and valve packing, gaskets, bonnet insulation, and refractory materials.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-44 (construction); 1944-45 (service)
- Population
- Mare Island Navy Yard construction trades 1943-44; USN engineering crew 1944-45
- Limitations
- Class/era and builder-yard inference only - not a ship-specific finding. The yard dataset documents Mare Island at facility level (1998 EIS-EIR; worker litigation of later decades) - it does not establish which products went into this hull. The diesel-electric plant excludes the boiler/steam-lagging categories. Does not establish asbestos presence, quantity, or location aboard DE-301, and does not establish any individual's exposure.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lake-de301-04
-
[6]CourtListener API v4 sweep (opinion index type=o; RECAP dockets type=r) for exact name 'USS Lake' and hull number 'DE-301' via cl-auth-search.py (authenticated, fleet-paced) [court_record]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lake-de301-05, -06, -07
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- CourtListener sweep: exact-name query '"USS Lake"' (type=o) returned 1 result - Sturm v. United States Department of Defense, D.D.C. No. 24-cv-1298 (DLF), opinion filed 2025-09-30, a Navy disability-rating case in which the matched phrase is 'USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN (CG 57),' a Ticonderoga-class cruiser - a name collision, not this hull and not asbestos litigation. Hull-number query '"DE-301"' (type=o) returned 16 results, all string collisions on review - 'DE 301' docket-entry numerals, Puerto Rican Spanish-language 'de 301' text fragments, and unrelated numerals; none references a vessel, naval service, or asbestos. RECAP-docket query '"USS Lake"' (type=r) remained blocked by the shared fleet pacing budget through drafting - logged as pending, not as a negative finding; see search_ledger sl-05 through sl-07 for final status. No qualifying asbestos litigation naming this hull located in the completed opinion-index sweep.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 2026-09-28
- Limitations
- Opinion index swept complete for both name and hull number (1 + 16 hits, all classified collisions - no qualifying case); the RECAP-docket query remained pace-blocked at drafting - 'pending' is weaker than 'no result,' so nothing can be asserted for the docket surface. The sweep covers only CourtListener-indexed opinions and RECAP dockets - not state-court records, trust claims, or non-U.S. jurisdictions - and 'Lake' is a high-collision name (USS Lake Champlain/Erie/County/Salt Lake City; surnames; geographic strings), so any future hit requires collision classification rather than automatic attribution.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lake-de301-05
-
[7]Batch-4209 search ledger (this record): NHHC DANFS + Wayback/hazegray mirrors, NVR, NavSource (spec block + hosted war-history scan), Atlas shipyard dataset, NARA catalog, web search sweep [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lake-de301-01 through -12
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no ACM survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, material-condition report, or docketed case naming this hull was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger; the CourtListener sweep itself remained pace-blocked and is logged as pending, not as a negative result). No preservation-era documentation can exist - the hull was sold for scrapping in December 1946 and was never a museum, memorial, or reserve-fleet asset; her entire commissioned career ran February 1944 to December 1945. A web search surfaced one asbestos-marketing page (asbestos-ships.com) templating this hull - a non-authoritative law-firm source class excluded from evidence.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 2026-09-28
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard. The hull no longer exists in recoverable form, so no present-day survey is possible; whether era materials aboard contained asbestos is undocumented in either direction. Construction-era yard records and deck logs are paper leads only (ev-07).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lake-de301-06
-
[8]NARA RG 19 (BuShips contract specifications / General Information Books) and RG 24 Entry 118 (WWII deck logs, 1941-1959 series) for DE-301; Mare Island Navy Yard production and shop records; NHHC photographic collection (official USN photos credited via NavSource captions); Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum photo credits on NavSource [other_primary]
- Locator
- NARA RG 19/RG 24 entry series (undigitized or unverified); NHHC photo collection; Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum holdings
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Archival leads for hull-level material documentation not yet retrieved: (1) NARA RG 19 holds BuShips per-vessel specifications and ships-data books covering DE-301's construction at Mare Island, and RG 24 Entry 118 holds 1944-45 deck logs covering her Pacific escort operations and decommissioning; (2) Mare Island Navy Yard production records (insulation/pipe-covering shop work orders for the DE-301-307 build block) are the likeliest hull-level material source; (3) official USN photographs credited on NavSource originate at NHHC/NARA (e.g., 19-N-86023 from the National Archives) - the April 1944 funnel photograph captioned for its diesel exhaust-pipe arrangement is directly materials-adjacent; (4) Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum holds credited Mare Island-era photographs of this hull.
- Verification
- unverified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-28
- Study period
- 1943-1946 (records); 2026 (lead status)
- Limitations
- Leads only - none of these holdings were pulled; contents unknown. They establish nothing about materials aboard. NARA catalog returns an SPA shell to programmatic fetches (standing limitation across batches).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lake-de301-07
