USS LSM-14

Evidence

9 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-9).

1. [1]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, USS LSM-14 (10/14/14014) - construction timeline, campaign record, awards, commanding officers, specifications, disposal; history extract credited to LSM-LSMR Amphibious Forces, Vol. II (Turner Publishing, 1997, ISBN 1-56311-389-9) [other_primary]

   Locator

   NavSource 10/14/14014.htm history block, campaign table, awards ribbons, commanding-officer table, specifications block

   Finding type

   vessel_history

   Finding

   Documented for this hull: laid down 23 March 1944 at Brown Shipbuilding Co., Houston, TX; launched 30 April 1944; commissioned USS LSM-14, 1 June 1944, ENS. William W. Xanders USNR in command. Asiatic-Pacific Theater service in LSM Flotilla Three (CDR W. F. Morrison USN), LSM Group Seven (LCDR C. A. Lamborn USNR), LSM Division Thirteen; campaigns: Luzon operation - Lingayen Gulf landing, 9 January 1945; Okinawa Gunto operation - assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto, 1 April to 30 June 1945. Post-war: Navy Occupation Service Medal 2-28 September 1945; China Service Medal (extended) 29 September - 10 December 1945. Decommissioned 6 June 1946 at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA; struck from the Naval Register, date unknown; two battle stars; sold for scrapping to Fairbanks Morse & Co., Chicago, IL, 13 January 1948. Commanding officers: ENS Xanders (1 Jun 1944 - Sep 1945); LT Athay (Sep - Dec 1945); LTjg Little (Dec 1945 - 6 Jun 1946). Specs: 520 t light / 1,095 t full; 203'6" x 34'6"; 13.2 kts; complement 5 officers + 54 enlisted; one twin 40mm + four single 20mm; two Fairbanks Morse 38D81/8X10 diesels, direct drive, 1,440 BHP each, twin screws, 2,800 shp.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   context

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-10-01

   Study period

   1944-1948

   Population

   Brown Shipbuilding construction trades (Mar-Jun 1944); crew ~59 + embarked troops (1944-46); Mare Island inactivation trades (1946); shipbreakers/disposal (1948)

   Limitations

   NavSource is a volunteer secondary compilation, not a primary registry - the history extract is credited to the Turner Publishing LSM-LSMR volume, itself built from Navy records, but milestone dates are not verified against the primary register. Contains no asbestos content. Strike date absent from all sources located.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-lsm-14-01

2. [2]Shipbuilding History (shipbuildinghistory.com), Brown Shipbuilding yard production table, Houston TX (update Aug 7, 2021) - yard hull no. 119 = LSM 14 [other_primary]

   Locator

   Brown Shipbuilding yard table, hull no. 119 row; yard-history header paragraph

   Finding type

   vessel_history

   Finding

   Builder-table record for this hull: Brown Shipbuilding yard hull number 119, type 'Landing Ship,' keel laid 23-Mar-44, launched 30-Apr-44, delivered 1-Jun-44, disposition 'Sold to Fairbanks Morse 1948' - matching NavSource's timeline and 13 January 1948 sale year. Yard context: Brown Shipbuilding was built in 1941 by George and Herman Brown (Brown & Root) at the junction of Green's Bayou and the Houston Ship Channel with $9 million in Navy funding; four-year output of 359 vessels (12 PCs, 32 LCI(L)s, 61 DEs, 254 LSMs); leased to Todd Shipyards in 1949 and operated as Todd's Houston Division until 1984; sold piecemeal 2004 - now the Brown Shipbuilding Industrial Park.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   context

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-10-01

   Study period

   1944-1948 (hull); 1941-2004 (yard)

   Population

   Brown Shipbuilding construction trades (1944)

   Limitations

   Secondary shipbuilding-reference compilation built from yard and Maritime Commission records - consistent with NavSource but not itself a primary registry. Contains no asbestos content. The yard's later Todd operation (1949+) post-dates this hull's presence.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-lsm-14-02

3. [3]Shipbuilding History, 'Landing Ships, Medium - LSM, LSM(R), LSV' production table (update Jan 6, 2018) - LSM-14 row; class production summary [other_primary]

   Locator

   LSM production table, header paragraph and LSM-14 row

   Finding type

   vessel_history

   Finding

   Class context: 558 Landing Ships, Medium were built in WWII by seven shipyards; the basic design - originally designated the LCT(7) - was 203.5 feet overall and 520 tons light; sixty hulls were configured as rocket ships (LSM(R)). The production table's LSM-14 row reads: Brown SB, Houston TX, delivered 1-Jun-44, 'sold to Fairbanks Morse 1948 for scrapping.'

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   context

   Documentation level

   class_or_era

   Accessed

   2026-10-01

   Study period

   1944-1948

   Population

   LSM-class crews and construction trades across seven yards (1944-46)

   Limitations

   Class production table; the LSM-14 row corroborates the builder and disposal but all entries are secondary compilation. No asbestos or material content.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-lsm-14-03

4. [4]Naval History and Heritage Command, 'The Navy's Happy Medium' (Art of Naval Amphibious Operations from WWII exhibit) - LSM design origin (ARCHIVED COPY: live NHHC URL returned 404 on 2026-10-01; Wayback capture 2025-02-18) [nhhc_danfs]

   Locator

   NHHC 'The Navy's Happy Medium' exhibit page, descriptive paragraph (Wayback capture 20250218061440)

   Finding type

   vessel_history

   Finding

   NHHC describes the LSM's design origin: 'Needing a landing ship somewhere between the size and displacement of an LCI (Landing Craft, Infantry) and an LST (Landing Ship, Tank), the Navy turned the problem over to its architects and designers who came up with the compact and maneuverable LSM (Landing Ship, Medium), shown here in South Pacific jungle camouflage.'

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   context

   Documentation level

   class_or_era

   Accessed

   2026-10-01

   Study period

   1944 design era

   Limitations

   Class-design background only - names no individual hull. Live NHHC page 404s; cited from a Wayback capture dated 2025-02-18 and labeled as archived. No asbestos content.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-lsm-14-04

5. [5]US Naval History and Heritage Command photographs NH 89363 and NH 81396, plus USS LSM/LSMR Association and private-contributor photographs - photo captions transcribed on the NavSource LSM-14 page [nhhc_danfs]

   Locator

   NavSource 10/14/14014.htm photo-caption block (NH 89363, NH 81396, Cape Gloucester, Manus, Guam floating drydock)

   Finding type

   historical_record

   Finding

   Photographic record placing this hull on station: NHHC photo NH 89363 shows USS LSM-14 in the background as a bulldozer comes ashore in Lingayen Gulf, 29 January 1945 (courtesy Robert O. Baumrucker, 1978); NHHC photo NH 81396 shows LSM-14 under way in San Francisco Bay, 1945-46 (courtesy D. M. McPherson, 1974). Additional captioned photography: LSM-14 beached with LSM-9 for 'recreation duty' at Cape Gloucester, New Britain, November-December 1944 (photo by Seymour M. Fimoff, QM2/c USS LSM-9); LSM-14's stern visible behind LSM-9 loading at Manus, Admiralty Islands, Christmas Day 1944; LSM-14 with LCI(L)-869 entering a floating drydock at Guam in 1946.

   Verification

   partial

   Role

   archival_lead

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-10-01

   Study period

   1944-1946

   Population

   Crew during captioned operations (1944-46)

   Limitations

   Archival lead only: photographs establish presence at the places captioned - Lingayen Gulf during the operation window, Cape Gloucester, Manus, a Guam floating drydock in 1946, and San Francisco Bay postwar - not what work was performed at them. The NHHC individual catalog pages for NH 89363 and NH 81396 could not be resolved live (404); photo existence and captions are transcribed via NavSource and remain open for direct NHHC verification.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-lsm-14-05

6. [6]Era inference built on: NavSource specifications block (two Fairbanks Morse 38D81/8X10 diesels, direct drive - diesel plant, no steam); shipbuildinghistory.com class production data (1944 WWII build); GAO HRD-80-2 Navy-wide asbestos-era documentation (see ev-uss-lsm-14-07) [other_primary]

   Locator

   NavSource specifications block; shipbuildinghistory.com LSM production table; GAO HRD-80-2 product page

   Finding type

   asbestos_application

   Finding

   A diesel-powered medium landing ship built March-June 1944 sits inside the Navy's documented asbestos-use era; era-standard applications aboard a diesel amphibious craft of this period were engine exhaust-uptake and machinery-space lagging, thermal insulation, gaskets, valve packing, electrical insulation, and accommodation joiner/bulkhead insulation in the hull's small confined interior. As a diesel direct-drive ship she carried no boilers or steam plant - the boiler/turbine lagging pathway of steam vessels does not apply.

   Verification

   inferred

   Role

   supporting

   Documentation level

   class_or_era

   Accessed

   2026-10-01

   Study period

   1944-1948

   Population

   Brown Shipbuilding construction trades (1944); crew ~59 + embarked troops (1944-46); Mare Island inactivation trades (1946); disposal/scrapping workers (1948)

   Limitations

   Class/era inference only - no hull-specific insulation survey, material list, or construction specification was located for LSM-14. 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-lsm-14-06

7. [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 entire construction (1944) and service era (1944-46).

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   context

   Documentation level

   class_or_era

   Accessed

   2026-10-01

   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 2026-10-01) - content via product-page description.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-lsm-14-07

8. [8]Dept. of the Navy / City of Vallejo, Final EIS/EIR for Disposal and Reuse of Mare Island Naval Shipyard (April 1998), DTIC ADA344388/ADA344389, SCH# 94093029 - as documented in the Atlas shipyards.json entry for mare-island-naval-shipyard [other_primary]

   Locator

   shipyards.json yard_id mare-island-naval-shipyard (evidence row ev-mare-island-01); DTIC ADA344388

   Finding type

   environmental_record

   Finding

   LSM-14 was decommissioned at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA, on 6 June 1946 (NavSource). The Atlas shipyard dataset documents asbestos-containing materials in Mare Island Naval Shipyard buildings via the 1998 Final EIS/EIR for the yard's disposal and reuse - including named product types (Unibestos, Marinite boards, Transite pipe, Kaylo, Careytemp, Gold Bond, pump and valve packing, gaskets, refractory materials).

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   context

   Documentation level

   context_only

   Accessed

   2026-10-01

   Study period

   1998 (EIS/EIR); 1946 (decommissioning event)

   Population

   Mare Island Naval Shipyard facility - inactivation-era trades (1946) and later

   Limitations

   Yard-level documentation, not a hull record: the 1998 EIS/EIR documents ACM in shipyard facilities five decades after this hull's 1946 inactivation and does not establish any asbestos condition aboard LSM-14, nor exposure of any person who worked on her decommissioning. DTIC blocks automated fetch (HTTP 403, confirmed 2026-10-01) - row rests on the Atlas shipyards.json entry's transcription of the EIS/EIR finding.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-lsm-14-08

9. [9]Batch-5941 search ledger (this record): NavSource LSM-14 page; shipbuildinghistory.com LSM production table + Brown yard table; NHHC 'Navy's Happy Medium' (Wayback); NHHC photo captions NH 89363/NH 81396 via NavSource; NVR; NARA catalog; GAO HRD-80-2; CourtListener API v4 (opinions searched, dockets blocked); secondary web sweep (navypedia, uboat.net, officialmilitaryribbons.com, Wikipedia LSM list) [other_primary]

   Locator

   search_ledger rows sl-uss-lsm-14-01 through sl-uss-lsm-14-12

   Finding type

   historical_record

   Finding

   No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or docketed case naming USS LSM-14 was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). CourtListener opinion index returned zero results for '"LSM-14" OR "USS LSM-14" OR "L.S.M.-14"' (authenticated API v4, 2026-10-01) - a verified no-result for published opinions. CAVEAT: the CourtListener docket index could not be searched this session - repeated authenticated requests returned the fleet-pacing stand-down; logged as blocked in search_ledger, not as a negative result. Secondary web sweeps surfaced no qualifying case and no law-firm 'asbestos aboard LSM-14' page was encountered.

   Verification

   verified

   Role

   negative_finding

   Documentation level

   ship_specific

   Accessed

   2026-10-01

   Study period

   2026-10-01

   Limitations

   Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - the hull was sold for scrapping in 1948, decades before asbestos litigation and modern hazmat record-keeping, so a documentary trail may never have existed. The docket-index search is a genuine open gap (fleet-pacing block, not run). NARA deck logs, action reports, and Brown Shipbuilding work packages are undigitized leads. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.

   Atlas source

   true

   Evidence ID

   ev-uss-lsm-14-09