Evidence
9 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-9).
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[1]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, USS LCI(G)-418 ex USS LCI(L)-418 - construction milestones, theater assignment, LCI(G) reclassification, China transfer, and class spec block (page history credited to 'USS LCI Landing Craft Infantry, Vol. II,' Turner Publishing, 1995) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 10/15/150418.htm - header, campaign table, reclassification/disposition lines, specifications block, photo caption
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Ship-specific milestones documented for this hull: laid down 4 February 1944 at George Lawley & Sons Shipbuilding Corp., Neponset, MA (LCI-351 class); launched 11 February 1944; commissioned USS LCI(L)-418, 18 February 1944. Assigned Europe-Africa-Middle East Theater; campaign credit Invasion of Normandy, 6-25 June 1944; one battle star for WWII service. Reclassified Landing Craft Infantry (Gunboat) LCI(G)-418, 15 July 1945. Occupation and China service in the Far East 24 October 1945 - 10 July 1946. Decommissioned, date unknown; struck from the Naval Register, date unknown; transferred to China 7 February 1948, named ROCS Lien Sheng; final disposition unknown. Spec block: 246 t. light / 264 t. landing / 419 t. loaded; 158'5.5" length; propulsion two sets of 4 GM diesels, 4 per shaft, BHP 1,600, twin variable-pitch propellers; LCI(L) complement 4 officers + 24 enlisted, LCI(G) 5 officers + 65 enlisted; troop capacity 6 officers + 182 enlisted; armament five single 20mm (LCI(L)) / two 40mm + four 20mm + six .50cal + ten Mk7 rocket launchers (LCI(G)). A ROC Navy photo shows the ex-LCI(G)-418 as ROCS Lien Sheng underway, captioned 1947 (source Robert Hurst, official Chinese Nationalist Navy photo).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1944-1948 (USN era); ROC era undated
- Population
- Construction trades, Lawley Neponset yard (Feb 1944); ship's company 1944-48 (LCI(L) ~28 / LCI(G) ~70 per class spec); embarked troops (~188 per spec); ROC Navy crew post-transfer
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer secondary compilation, not a primary registry - its milestone dates generally track official sources and the page credits the Turner Publishing LCI history. Contains no asbestos or materials content. Decommission and stricken dates are 'unknown' even in this source. The 1947-dated ROC photo caption predates the stated 7 February 1948 transfer - a secondary-source tension carried in gaps.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-418-lcil418-01
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[2]NARA, Special List #44: List of Logbooks of U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and Miscellaneous Units, 1801-1947 (by ship number), sl-44-ship-number.pdf, p. 23 - LCI(L) block [other_primary]
- Locator
- sl-44-ship-number.pdf p. 23, row 'LCI(L)-418 2/18/1944 6/30/1945'; NARA digitized-log list (archives.gov/research/military/logbooks/navy-online) - no numbered-LCI entries
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- NARA Special List #44 indexes exactly one deck-log run for LCI(L)-418: 18 February 1944 - 30 June 1945 (verified by direct PDF text extraction, page 23, adjacent rows consistent - sister LCI(L)-417 begins 16 February 1944, LCI(L)-419 begins 21 February 1944, each matching its commissioning date). The run starts on her commissioning day and covers the Normandy period, the winter 1944-45 Jacksonville rebuild, and the March 1945 Panama transit to San Diego - ending 30 June 1945, just before the formal 15 July 1945 LCI(G) reclassification and all China service. These are log-coverage dates, not service-boundary dates. The logs are physically held (Archives II / RG 24) but are NOT among the deck logs digitized in the National Archives Catalog (the public digitized list covers named vessels; numbered craft are absent from it).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1944-02-18 - 1945-06-30 (indexed log coverage)
- Population
- Commissioning and wartime crew, Feb 1944 - Jun 1945 window
- Limitations
- Index-level evidence: establishes that logs exist and their coverage window, not their contents - no page-level retrieval performed. Special List #44 covers through 1947 - the hull's post-June 1945 logs fall inside that window yet carry no indexed run; whether they were accessioned at all is unverified. No asbestos content - the lead value is that deck logs can carry work/repair entries (e.g., yard availabilities) for a claims researcher.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-418-lcil418-02
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[3]CTF-122 Operation Plan No. 2-44 (ONWEST TWO), Western Naval Task Force, USS AUGUSTA flagship, Plymouth, England, 21 April 1944 - Task Organization (HyperWar transcription of the wartime operation plan) [other_primary]
- Locator
- OpPlan 2-44 Task Organization, section 126 'Follow-up Force B', LCI(L) Flotilla 12 line
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- The Western Naval Task Force plan for Operation Neptune assigns LCI(L)-418 to LCI(L) Flotilla 12 (list: 401, 403, 537, 538, 539, 556, *414, 415, 416, 417, 418, 420, 542) under Follow-up Force 'B' (Commodore Edgar, USN) - the second-echelon force delivering reinforcement troops and materiel to the invasion beaches during the 6-25 June 1944 campaign window for which the ship earned its battle star.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1944-06 (Normandy window)
- Population
- Ship's company (~28 per class spec) plus embarked Army troops during June 1944 operations
- Limitations
- Assignment-level evidence from a planning document: the plan places the hull in Flotilla 12 within Force 'B'; it does not record which beach (Omaha or Utah) or which day she actually landed troops. USS LCI National Association history (Elsie Item No. 67) describes Flotilla 12's Group 34 landing on Omaha on D-Day, but 418's group assignment is not stated in any located source. HyperWar is a transcription mirror of the official document.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-418-lcil418-03
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[4]USS Landing Craft Infantry National Association, 'USS LCI(L)330 and USS LCI(G)418' - firsthand account by Charlie Savary, EM (letter dated 29 January 2000) [other_primary]
- Locator
- usslci.org story page, Savary letter paragraphs 3-4
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- An electrician's mate who served aboard gives the otherwise-undocumented post-Normandy track: LCI(L)-418 returned from Europe, was picked up at Charleston, SC, and 'spent the winter of 44 in (Stevens Shipyard, So. Jacksonville, Florida) rebuilding her'; in March (1945) she transited the Panama Canal to the Destroyer Base, San Diego, where 'she was converted to a LCI(G)'; departed 19 August 1945 for China service via Honolulu, Buckner Bay (Okinawa), and Subic Bay to Formosa, where she unloaded Chinese Nationalist troops from Liberty ships around the clock for about six weeks; then operated on the Chinese mainland coast from Shanghai to Chingwangtow, including three trips to Inchon, Korea, repatriating Koreans; the crew were 'getting the 418 ready to give to the nationalist Chinese' when the writer rotated home 12 July 1946.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1944-winter through 1946-07
- Population
- LCI(G)-418 crew (~70 per class spec) during 1945 conversion and China service; yard trades at Jacksonville (winter 1944-45) and Destroyer Base San Diego (spring-summer 1945)
- Limitations
- Personal recollection written ~55 years after the events - firsthand but uncorroborated at the detail level (dates and sequences track the official NavSource frame: LCI(G) reclassification 15 July 1945, occupation/China service from October 1945). 'Stevens Shipyard, So. Jacksonville' is consistent with Merrill-Stevens Dry Dock & Repair Co., the wartime Jacksonville repair yard, but that identification is not certain. Not an exposure record - but the documented winter-1944/45 yard rebuild and the 1945 gunboat conversion are the ship's known work-package windows.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-418-lcil418-04
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[5]Historic American Engineering Record (NPS), HAER No. OR-180: LCI(L)-713 - written historical and descriptive data (2012), the surviving LCI-351-class sister built at the same George Lawley & Son Neponset yard (keel July 1944, five months after LCI(L)-418) [haer]
- Locator
- HAER OR-180 written data, pp. 1-3 (measurements, description, construction history)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- HAER documents the class's construction on the preserved sister hull: Bureau of Ships standard design; welded 1/4-inch steel plate; eight General Motors 6-71 diesel engines connected to two shafts with variable-pitch propellers; two decks with lower-deck troop and crew compartments, engine room aft, and a deckhouse containing officers' accommodations, mess, wardroom, and galley; five single 20mm Oerlikon mounts. The HAER document makes NO mention of asbestos or insulation materials anywhere in its description of the class.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1944 (construction era)
- Population
- Class-level: Lawley Neponset construction trades; LCI crews
- Limitations
- Class documentation measured on a sister hull (LCI(L)-713), not this vessel - and 713 exemplifies the post-1 June 1944 'modified design' (cylindrical pilothouse, centerline ramp), whereas LCI(L)-418 was built four months before that cutover and carries the earlier arrangement. Absence of an asbestos mention in HAER is not evidence of absence - the record describes structure and layout, not materials content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-418-lcil418-05
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[6]Era inference built on: NavSource spec block for this hull (GM diesel plant, no steam); HAER OR-180 class construction (welded 1/4-in steel plate, BuShips standard design); GAO HRD-80-2 Navy-wide asbestos-era documentation (ev-07) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 10/15/150418.htm spec block (propulsion); HAER OR-180 construction description; GAO HRD-80-2 product page
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- A welded-steel, diesel-powered infantry landing craft built February 1944 sits inside the Navy's documented asbestos-use era. Era-standard asbestos applications aboard a WWII diesel craft of this size: engine-exhaust and muffler lagging, machinery gaskets and valve packing, electrical insulation, and compartment insulation in the deckhouse and accommodation spaces. As a diesel craft she carried no boilers or steam plant - the boiler/turbine lagging pathway of steam vessels does not apply, bounding the plausible material scope well below that of a steam combatant.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1944-1972 (construction through ROC disposal)
- Population
- Lawley Neponset construction trades (Feb 1944); ship's company and embarked troops 1944-46; yard trades during the winter-1944/45 Jacksonville rebuild and 1945 San Diego LCI(G) conversion; ROC-era crews; any breakers at final disposition
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no hull-specific insulation schedule, material list, survey, or work package located for LCI(L)-418. Names era-standard applications, not confirmed installed materials. No quantity. Product names are normalized era terms; no manufacturer attribution for this hull.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-418-lcil418-06
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[7]GAO, Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure, HRD-80-2 (Oct 18, 1979) [gao]
- Locator
- GAO product page HRD-80-2 (full text blocked, HTTP 403)
- 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 construction (1944), USN service (1944-48), and yard availabilities.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- 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. Full text not retrieved (gao.gov blocks automated fetch, HTTP 403, confirmed 2026-09-30) - content via product-page description.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-418-lcil418-07
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[8]Navypedia, 'LIAN ZHU infantry landing craft (1943-1944/1949-1958)' - Republic of China Navy record for ex-LCI(G)-418 [other_primary]
- Locator
- Navypedia tai_ls_lianbi.htm, ships table row 3 (Lian Shen)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Navypedia's ROC Navy table carries the ex-LCI(G)-418 / ex-LCI(L)-418 as 聯勝 [Lian Shen], pennant LCI-263, builder George Lawley, Neponset - with ROCN entry shown October 1949 and 'stricken 1971-72'. This conflicts with NavSource's 'transferred to China 7 February 1948' and with the NavSource photo caption showing her in ROC service underway in 1947; the 1948 date is carried on NavSource's sourcing and the variants are logged in gaps.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1947-1972 (ROC era, disputed dates)
- Population
- ROC Navy crew, c.1948-1972
- Limitations
- Navypedia is a secondary compilation - its dates are not primary and its '10.1949' ROCN entry date is applied uniformly across the table's LCI transfers, suggesting batch roster data rather than hull-specific records. ROC-era documentation (service records, disposal file) was not searched. Nothing in this row is asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-418-lcil418-08
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[9]Batch-5131 search ledger (this record): NavSource Amphibious Photo Archive; NARA Special List #44 ship-number PDF + digitized-logs list; NHHC DANFS URL checks (404); HyperWar CTF-122 OpPlan 2-44; USS LCI National Association firsthand account; HAER OR-180; GAO HRD-80-2 product page; Navypedia ROC table; CourtListener API v4 (partially blocked); secondary web sweep [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lci-l-418-lcil418-01 through -12
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or verified litigation naming USS LCI(L)-418 / LCI(G)-418 / ROCS Lien Sheng was found in the public sources searched. There is no DANFS entry for this hull (NHHC returns 404 for the numbered-hull URL patterns - unnamed LCI(L)s were not covered by the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships). CourtListener opinion searches on 'LCI-418' and 'LCI(L)-418' returned zero hits (authenticated API v4, 2026-09-30); further opinion variants and all docket-side queries were blocked by the fleet-wide pacing budget at research time - logged as blocked in search_ledger, not as a negative result. Secondary sweeps surfaced no qualifying ship-specific material; no law-firm 'asbestos aboard LCI-418' claims were found to exclude.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 2026-09-30
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard. Open leads: the indexed deck-log run at Archives II (Feb 1944 - Jun 1945) is undigitized; work packages for the winter-1944/45 Jacksonville rebuild and the 1945 San Diego gunboat conversion are undigitized; ROC-era records are in Taiwanese archives and were not searched; docket-side litigation search was not completed this session.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-418-lcil418-09