Evidence
9 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-9).
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[1]NARA, Special List 44 - List of Logbooks of U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and Miscellaneous Units, 1801-1947 (ship-number listing) [other_primary]
- Locator
- sl-44-ship-number.pdf, PDF page 24, LCI(L) block, line 'LCI(L)-491 | 11/3/1943 | 10/31/1944'
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- The official NARA logbook inventory (Special List 44, ship-number PDF, p. 24) lists a Navy deck-log holding under LCI(L)-491 covering 11/3/1943-10/31/1944 (MM/DD/YYYY). The begin date coincides with her documented commissioning (3 November 1943) and the end date falls in the month preceding her documented 18 November 1944 transfer to the Royal Navy - the inventory establishes the in-scope USN service window. Logs are Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, RG 24, Entry 118 (NAID 581208).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1943-11-03 to 1944-10-31
- Population
- USN crew aboard LCI(L)-491, Nov 1943 - Oct 1944 (design complement 4 officers, 24 enlisted)
- Limitations
- This is an inventory of physical logbooks, not the log contents - it establishes that a deck log exists and its coverage dates, not what the log records. Log-coverage dates are not commissioning/decommissioning dates; the coverage ends ~18 days before the documented RN transfer, so the final USN days are outside the inventoried holding. The LCI(L)-491 logs do not appear in NARA's published list of digitized Navy deck logs (archives.gov/research/military/logbooks/navy-online), so direct log-text verification is an open archival lead.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-491-lcil491-01
-
[2]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, USS LCI(L)-491 (NavSource file 10/15/150491; history credited to USS LCI 'Landing Craft Infantry' Vol. II, Turner Publishing 1995) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 10/15/150491 main text + specifications block + image captions
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource timeline for this hull: LCI-351 class Landing Craft Infantry (Large); laid down October 1943 at New Jersey Shipbuilding, Barber, N.J.; launched October 1943; commissioned USS LCI(L)-491 on 3 November 1943; assigned Europe-Africa-Middle East Theater, participated in the Invasion of Normandy 6-25 June 1944; decommissioned and leased to the United Kingdom at Oman, Muscat, 18 November 1944 and commissioned into the Royal Navy as HM LCI(L)-491 the same date; returned to US naval custody 14 March 1946; struck from the Naval Register 26 February 1946; earned one battle star for WWII service; transferred to the State Department for disposal and sold 9 June 1947, fate unknown. Spec block: 236 t light / 264 t landing / 419 t loaded; 158 ft 5.5 in; beam 23 ft 3 in; 16 kt max, 14 kt continuous; complement 4 officers, 24 enlisted; troop capacity 6 officers, 182 enlisted; armament five single 20mm; propulsion two sets of four General Motors 6051-series-71 diesel engines (4 per shaft) with GM main reduction gears, two 30 kW diesel-driven generators, twin variable-pitch propellers, 2,320 shp. Photographs show her preparing for Normandy in an English port circa 5 June 1944 alongside LCI(L)-496, -85, -88, -90, and -92, and departing a southern British port 5 June 1944.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1943-1947
- Population
- USN crew 1943-44 (design complement 4 officers, 24 enlisted); embarked troops up to ~188; RN crew 1944-46
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer-compiled photographic archive citing Turner Publishing's USS LCI volume and contributor photographs, not a primary document. Two anomalies are carried in gaps: the printed stricken date (26 Feb 1946) precedes the printed return-to-custody date (14 Mar 1946), and the Muscat, Oman turnover locality conflicts with the war-diary-based RNRA account placing decommissioning in the UK. Establishes no materials or asbestos facts.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-491-lcil491-02
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[3]Royal Navy Research Archive, BPF-EIF ship profile 'H.M.S. LCQ-491' (compiled from Admiralty/US war diaries, Fold3 records, and standard LCI references; last modified 23 Feb 2023) [other_primary]
- Locator
- RNRA BPF-EIF LCQ-491 ship profile: Early history, Operation NEPTUNE, Transfer to the RN, Allocated to the East Indies Fleet, Operation ZIPPER sections
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Detailed hull chronology: commissioned USS LCI(L) 491 on 3 November 1943 at Barber, N.J.; assigned to LCI(L) Flotilla Ten, Group Twenty-eight, Division Fifty-five, Atlantic Fleet; fitted out at Pier 42, North River, New York; shakedown in Chesapeake Bay from 19 November; arrived Norfolk (Pier Sugar, Lambert Point) 14 December; sailed Norfolk 24 December 1943 with LCI(L)s 487, 488, 489, 490, and 492 in convoy UGS-28; detached to Horta, Azores 3 January 1944; arrived Falmouth 14 January; Dartmouth 20 January; Slapton Sands exercises (Operation DUCK II 14-16 February; Exercise FOX 9-10 March); Weymouth from 1 May; FABIUS I rehearsal for Assault Force 'O'. On D-Day she was one of 11 LCI(L)s of Assault Group O-3 (93, 487, 488, 489, 490, 491, 494, 495, 496, 497, 498) bound for Omaha Beach sector EASY Red, carrying 18 officers and 142 enlisted men of the 1st US Infantry Division HQ and HQ Company; at 0947 took aboard one officer and 30 soldier survivors of a swamped LCVP via LCM-125; anchored 250 yards off the beach at 1320 and discharged passengers through LCVPs/LCMs under 88mm battery fire without damage. On 7 June she embarked 22 officers and 350 soldiers of the 2nd Division from SS Furnifold M. Simmons for transhipment ashore; then towed barges for five days and served as a pilot vessel 14-26 June. On 20 June during a gale she rescued four survivors of British LCT 730 (which had broken in half), sustaining a steering-room puncture below the waterline stopped by wedges and stuffing. Decommissioned in the UK 18 November 1944 and commissioned into the RN as HM LCI(L) 491; selected with five other LCI-351-class vessels for conversion to Landing Craft Administration ships (designated LCQ, the LCA suffix already existing), converted at a Grimsby dockyard (added office spaces, additional telephones, staff-officer cabins); reallocated to the East Indies Fleet under Operation APPIAN; based likely at Bombay in 'A' LCI(L) Squadron (270th/271st/272nd flotillas); sailed Mandapam 29 August 1945 in convoy JMD 1B for Operation ZIPPER, the Morib landings in Malaya, 9 September 1945; post-war reassigned to Singapore. RN battle honour: Malaya 1945.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1943-1946
- Population
- USN crew (1943-44); embarked 1st and 2nd Infantry Division troops; RN crew (1944-46); Grimsby dockyard conversion workers 1944-45
- Limitations
- Compiled research-archive page drawing on Admiralty and US war diaries (via Fold3), NavSource, and uboat.net - primary-informed but not itself a primary document. Its own spec table contains a clear typographical error ('Length: 60 ft 4 in') and its post-war paragraph appears to substitute 'LCQ 391' in a sentence describing this hull's return and disposal - that paragraph is not relied on; return/struck/sold dates are taken from NavSource. The 'decommissioned in the UK' turnover locality conflicts with NavSource's Muscat, Oman - carried in gaps. Establishes no materials or asbestos facts.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-491-lcil491-03
-
[4]USS Landing Craft Infantry National Association (usslci.org), 'LCI(L) 489 - The Engineering Officer's Point of View' (firsthand memoir of a sister-ship engineering officer) [other_primary]
- Locator
- usslci.org article text: flotilla assignment paragraph and March/May 1944 exercise lists naming '491'
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- A firsthand memoir by the engineering officer of sister ship LCI(L)-489 names this hull in unit records: LCI(L)-491 was in the 2-11 March 1944 transport group of 25 LCI(L)s under Commander M.H. Imlay, USCG (Com Eleventh Amphibious Force, Flotilla Ten, Group 28, Division 55 per CNO conf. serial 0476123 of 13 October 1943), and appears in the exercise-beaching records at Weymouth Beach on 10 May 1944 (with LCI(L)s 488, 487, 496, 494) and 15 May 1944 (with LCI(L) 493). Corroborates LCI(L)-491's Group 28/Flotilla 10 assignment and pre-invasion exercise program.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1944
- Population
- Group 28 LCI(L) crews, spring 1944
- Limitations
- Eyewitness memoir of another vessel's officer published on the LCI veterans' association site - names LCI(L)-491 in unit rosters and exercise lists but provides no detail about her own crew or material condition; memoir-level corroboration only. Establishes no asbestos facts.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-491-lcil491-04
-
[5]U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office, 'US Coast Guard-Manned LCI(L)s - Landing Craft Infantry (Large)' [other_primary]
- Locator
- USCG Historian's Office page, Flotilla 10 paragraphs
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Official USCG historian documentation of the flotilla in which this hull served: LCI(L) Flotilla 10 (redesignated from Flotilla 4 after Sicily/Salerno) comprised 24 Coast Guard-manned LCI(L)s reinforced by 12 Navy-manned LCIs for Operation Overlord - 36 craft divided evenly between Omaha and Utah beaches; the flotilla suffered grievous losses at Omaha including four LCI(L)s destroyed. LCI(L)-491 was one of the Navy-manned hulls attached to this Coast Guard flotilla (RNRA Group 28/Division 55 assignment; usslci.org memoir corroboration).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1943-1945
- Population
- Flotilla 10 crews (USCG and USN), 1943-1945
- Limitations
- Flotilla-level context; the page does not name LCI(L)-491. The Coast Guard Unit Commendation on the linked page was awarded to the Coast Guard-manned LCI(L)s of Flotilla 10 - LCI(L)-491 was Navy-manned, so that award does not attach to her. No materials or asbestos facts.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-491-lcil491-05
-
[6]HyperWar (ibiblio), 'Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1940-1945 - Landing Ships and Craft': LCI(L)-351 class specification block and hull-range disposition table (LCI(L)-490-496 listed 'Lend-Lease to UK') [other_primary]
- Locator
- ships-lc.html, 'LCI(L)-351 Class' specification block and hull table row 'LCI(L)-490-496'
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Class-level specification reference for the LCI(L)-351 class to which this hull belongs: 385 tons full load; length 160 ft 4 in; beam 23 ft 3 in; draft 5 ft 8 in; 15.5 knots; five 20mm guns; complement 4 officers, 25 enlisted; capacity 9 officers, 200 enlisted or 75 tons cargo; two sets of GM diesel engines, twin variable-pitch screws. The disposition table lists LCI(L)-490-496 as 'Lend-Lease to UK' - consistent with this hull's documented November 1944 Royal Navy transfer.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1942-1946
- Population
- LCI(L)-351 class crews (era context)
- Limitations
- Class-level data, not a hull record; its complement (4 officers, 25 enlisted) and dimensions differ slightly from the NavSource spec block (4 officers, 24 enlisted; 158 ft 5.5 in; 419 t loaded) - carried in gaps. HyperWar is a transcription of wartime-era compiled data. No materials or asbestos facts.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-491-lcil491-06
-
[7]Era inference built on: NavSource LCI-351 class spec block (all-diesel GM 6-71-series propulsion, no steam plant); RNRA LCQ-491 conversion record (Grimsby refit adding cabins/offices); GAO HRD-80-2 Navy asbestos-era documentation (see ev-07) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource spec block (propulsion); RNRA conversion paragraph; GAO HRD-80-2 product page
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- An all-diesel landing craft built in 1943 sits inside the Navy's documented asbestos-use era. She carried no steam plant - the boiler/steam-line lagging pathway of steam vessels does not apply. Era-standard asbestos applications aboard a small diesel combatant of this type and period were engine-exhaust and muffler insulation, engine-room thermal and acoustic insulation, gaskets and valve packing in fuel and cooling systems, electrical insulation, winch and windlass brake linings, deck coverings, and insulation board in accommodation and magazine spaces. Her 1944-45 conversion to a Landing Craft Administration ship at a Grimsby dockyard added office spaces and staff cabins - interior refit work of the era and type that commonly used asbestos-containing board and insulation products.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1943-1947
- Population
- New Jersey Shipbuilding construction trades (1943); USN crew (1943-44); Grimsby dockyard conversion workers (1944-45); RN crew (1944-46)
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no hull-specific insulation survey, material list, or work package located for this craft. Names era-standard applications, not confirmed installed materials aboard LCI(L)-491. No quantity, no manufacturer attribution, no present-day presence (hull sold 1947, fate unknown). Does not establish individual exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-491-lcil491-07
-
[8]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 1943 construction and 1943-47 service era.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1943-1947 (applicable era)
- 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-491-lcil491-08
-
[9]Batch-5211 search ledger (this record): NARA Special List 44 ship-number PDF and digitized-logs listing; NHHC DANFS (no entry exists); NavSource 10/15/150491; Royal Navy Research Archive LCQ-491; USCG Historian Flotilla 10; HyperWar ships-lc; usslci.org memoir; Naval Marine Archive NJ Shipbuilding roster; CourtListener API v4; secondary web sweep [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lci-l-491-lcil491-01 through -12
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, deck-log asbestos entry, or qualifying litigation naming USS LCI(L)-491 was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). Authenticated CourtListener opinion searches for 'LCI(L)-491' and 'LCI-491' and the docket search for 'LCI(L)-491' all returned zero results. Secondary web sweeps surfaced no qualifying case; the only 'asbestos aboard' material is law-firm marketing listicles asserting asbestos across LCI hulls without primary sourcing - excluded by source policy.
- 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 RG 24 deck logs covering Nov 1943-Oct 1944 are the strongest untapped primary lead and are not digitized. Does not establish that asbestos is or is not present; does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lci-l-491-lcil491-09