Evidence
7 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-7).
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[1]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, USS LC(FF)-486 ex USS LCI(L)-486 - construction milestones, specifications, flotilla assignment, Typhoon Louise grounding, disposal (history credited to USS LCI 'Landing Craft Infantry' Vol. II, Turner Publishing, 1995) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 10/15/150486.htm header block, LCI-351 class specifications block, commanding-officer table, photo captions
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Documented for this hull: laid down 12 September 1943 at New Jersey Shipbuilding Corp., Barber, NJ; launched 19 October 1943; commissioned USS LCI(L)-486, 25 October 1943, LTjg. Glenn H. Johnson USNR in command; redesignated Landing Craft (Flotilla Flagship) USS LC(FF)-486, 31 December 1944. Assigned Asiatic-Pacific Theater: LC(FF) Flotilla Twenty-Three (LCDR R. H. Brazeal), LC(FF) Group Sixty-Eight (LT O. G. Howell), LC(FF) Division One Hundred Thirty-Five. Post-war occupation service in the Far East 4 October - 22 December 1945. Grounded by Typhoon Louise at Okinawa 9 October 1945 (reef, Buckner Bay; photo-documented); decommissioned, date unknown, at Buckner Bay; struck from the Naval Register 21 January 1946; transferred to the State Department May 1947 for disposal; final fate unknown. Spec block: displacement 246 t. light / 264 t. landing / 419 t. loaded; length 158' 5.5"; beam 23' 3"; complement 4 officers + 24 enlisted; troop capacity 6 officers + 182 enlisted; armament five single 20mm guns; propulsion two sets of four General Motors diesel engines (four per shaft), 1,600 BHP, twin variable-pitch propellers. Awards shown: American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal (Asia clasp); no battle stars displayed. Linked scan: wartime crew and staff roster (contributed by Don Perry), image-only PDF.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1943-1947
- Population
- Construction trades, New Jersey Shipbuilding Corp., Barber NJ (1943); ship's company (4 officers + 24 enlisted) and embarked flotilla staff as LC(FF) (1943-45)
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer secondary compilation - the history section is credited to the Turner Publishing LCI book, not a primary registry; milestone dates generally track official records but carry transcription risk (laid-down date conflicts with uboat.net's 16 Sep 1943 - see gaps). Commanding-officer table gives Johnson's start as 26 October 1943 vs the 25 October 1943 commissioning date. Contains no asbestos or material-content information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-486-lcil486-01
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[2]NARA Special List 44, List of Logbooks of U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and Miscellaneous Units, 1801-1947 (ship-number ordering), PDF p. 15 [other_primary]
- Locator
- sl-44-ship-number.pdf p. 15, row 'LCI(L)(FF)-486 | 10/25/1943 | 12/22/1945'
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- NARA holds deck logs for this hull indexed as LCI(L)(FF)-486, coverage 10/25/1943 - 12/22/1945. The coverage window begins on the documented commissioning date (25 October 1943) and ends the same day as the documented end of occupation service (22 December 1945), independently corroborating both milestones.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1943-1945 (log coverage)
- Population
- Ship's company and flotilla staff (1943-45)
- Limitations
- Index entry only - documents that logs exist and their date coverage, not their contents. The logs themselves are not digitized (RG 24, NARA College Park); no deck-log text was consulted for this record. These are log-coverage dates, not commissioning/decommissioning dates in themselves.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-486-lcil486-02
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[3]NHHC Navy Department Library, 'Pacific Typhoon October 1945 - Okinawa' - extract from Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas report on the Surrender and Occupation of Japan, including Appendix III, 'Typhoon Damage at Okinawa (Based Upon Progress Reports to 19 November)' [other_primary]
- Locator
- CinCPac report extract text; Appendix III casualty table rows 'LCI 486' and 'LC(FF) 486'
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- The CinCPac report extract documents Typhoon 'Louise' striking Buckner Bay, Okinawa on 9 October 1945: the storm center passed the bay at about 1600 with steady winds of 100 knots and gusts of 120 knots; fleet-wide toll was 12 ships sunk, 222 grounded, and 32 damaged beyond ships'-company repair capacity, with the most badly damaged vessels decommissioned, stripped, and abandoned. Appendix III lists this hull twice under variant designations: 'LCI 486 - Grounded' and 'LC(FF) 486 - Grounded - strip, abandonment' - the directed disposition that explains her decommissioning at Buckner Bay.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1945
- Population
- Ship's company and any embarked flotilla staff during Typhoon Louise (9 October 1945); salvage/stripping crews at Buckner Bay (Oct-Dec 1945)
- Limitations
- The appendix is a progress-report compilation to 19 November 1945 - 'strip, abandonment' is a directed disposition, not proof of a completed act; NavSource gives final fate as 'unknown' after transfer to the State Department in May 1947. The double listing ('LCI 486' and 'LC(FF) 486') refers to the same hull - 486 carried the LC(FF) designation from 31 December 1944. Contains no asbestos or material-content information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-486-lcil486-03
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[4]Era inference built on: NavSource LCI-351 class spec block (diesel propulsion, 1943 steel-hulled construction at New Jersey Shipbuilding Corp.); GAO HRD-80-2 Navy asbestos-era documentation (see ev-05) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource specifications block (propulsion, armor); GAO HRD-80-2 product page (era context)
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- A steel-hulled diesel-powered landing craft built in late 1943 at New Jersey Shipbuilding Corp., Barber, NJ sits inside the Navy's documented asbestos-use era; era-standard applications aboard a small combatant of this type and period were engine-exhaust and muffler lagging, machinery thermal insulation, gaskets, valve packing, and electrical insulation in the confined hull volume. As a diesel-powered craft she carried no steam plant - the boiler/turbine lagging pathway of steam vessels does not apply, and her '2-inch plastic splinter protection' armor is not an asbestos product. The LC(FF) conversion added command and communications spaces for embarked flotilla staff - more insulated and wired volume, same era materials environment.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1943-1947
- Population
- Construction trades, New Jersey Shipbuilding (1943); engine-room crew ('black gang') and embarked flotilla staff (1943-45); salvage/stripping crews at Buckner Bay (1945); unknown disposal handlers (1947)
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no hull-specific insulation survey, material list, or work package located for LCI(L)-486/LC(FF)-486. Names era-standard applications, not confirmed installed materials. No quantity. The builder yard (New Jersey Shipbuilding, Barber NJ) has no located asbestos-specific documentation of its own - inference rests on era and Navy practice, not yard records.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-486-lcil486-04
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[5]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 entire construction (1943) and service era (1943-1945).
- 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 - standing defect since Batch-01); content via product-page description.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-486-lcil486-05
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[6]uboat.net Allied Warships database, USS LCI(L)-486 (LCI 351 class) - construction milestone table [other_primary]
- Locator
- uboat.net ship ID 21528, warship milestone table
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Secondary-compilation corroboration for this hull: ordered 22 March 1943; laid down 16 September 1943 (conflicts with NavSource's 12 September 1943 - see gaps); launched 19 October 1943; commissioned 25 October 1943; reclassified LC(FF), Landing Craft Flotilla Flagship, on 31 December 1944. New Jersey Shipbuilding Corp. (Barber, NJ) as builder corroborated.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1943-1944
- Limitations
- uboat.net is a secondary research compilation with no sourcing displayed per page; treated as corroboration only where it agrees with NavSource/NARA and as a documented conflict on the laid-down date. The 'ordered 22 Mar 1943' datum has no located primary anchor. Contains no asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-486-lcil486-06
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[7]Batch-5206 search ledger (this record): NavSource page and linked crew/staff roster PDF; NARA Special List 44 ship-number PDF; NHHC Pacific Typhoon (CinCPac extract + Appendix III); uboat.net milestone table; USNA MS 415 action-report finding aid; usslci.org site search; NHHC DANFS candidate URLs; NVR; CourtListener API v4 (all designation variants, opinion and docket); secondary web litigation/asbestos sweep [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lci-l-486-lcil486-01 through -10
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or qualifying litigation naming USS LCI(L)-486 / LC(FF)-486 was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). CourtListener exact-phrase searches for all designation variants ('LC(FF)-486', 'LCI-486', 'LCI(L)-486') returned zero hits at both opinion (type=o) and docket (type=r) level; an unquoted 'LCI(L)-486' query returned 637 fuzzy matches, all acronym collisions on 'LCI' (telecom, construction-fund, etc.) with no ship-related hits on inspection. Secondary web sweep surfaced no asbestos claim of any kind for this hull - not even law-firm marketing listicles.
- 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 - the hull was built inside the Navy's asbestos era and was stripped and abandoned at Okinawa, leaving no post-service material record and no surviving hull to survey. CourtListener coverage is complete for designation-string searches but cannot reach unindexed PACER filings or state-court complaints that never name the hull verbatim. Deck logs (NARA College Park, coverage verified) and any BuShips construction/work-package records are undigitized leads. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-486-lcil486-07