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, LSM-164 — specifications, chronology, disposition [other_primary]
- Locator
- navsource.net/archives/10/14/14164.htm — specifications block, chronology, and disposition line
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Documented for this hull: laid down 19 June 1944 at Charleston Navy Yard, Charleston, SC; launched 11 July 1944; commissioned 26 August 1944, LT. James A. Dowd, USNR, in command. Specifications: displacement 520 t (light), 743 t (landing), 1,095 t (fully loaded); length 203'6"; beam 34'6"; draft (light) 3'6" fwd/7'8" aft, (loaded) 6'4" fwd/8'3" aft; speed 13.2 kts max; complement 5 officers, 54 enlisted; armament one twin 40mm bow mount, four single 20mm mounts; capacity 5 medium or 3 heavy tanks, 6 LVTs, or 9 DUKWs; fuel 1,225 barrels diesel; endurance 4,900 mi at 12 kts; propulsion two GM 16-278A diesels (1,440 BHP each), twin screws, 2,800 shp; generators two 100kW 450V A.C., one 20kW 120V D.C.; 10-lb STS splinter shield. Assigned LSM Flotilla One, LSM Group One, LSM Division One, Asiatic-Pacific Theater; assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto, 14 May–30 June 1945 (one battle star). Occupation/China service: loaded Marines and gear for Tientsin late September 1945; came alongside the Tientsin dock 3 October 1945 to disembark Marines brought from Okinawa for the occupation/surrender of North China; moored at Tientsin through October 1945. Decommissioned 21 May 1946 at San Diego, CA. Struck from the Naval Register, date not given ('date unknown' per page). Sold December 1946 to A. G. Schoonmaker, New York, NY; fate thereafter unknown.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1944-1946
- Population
- Charleston Navy Yard construction trades (1944); crew (1944-46)
- Limitations
- Ship-specific vessel history and specifications only; no asbestos or material content. NavSource is a volunteer secondary compilation, not a primary Navy registry, but its milestone dates are corroborated here by a NARA commissioning-file finding aid (ev-02). Page confirmed live (HTTP 200, 2026-09-30).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-164-lsm164-01
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[2]NARA, National Archives at Atlanta, finding aid, RG 181 records of the Sixth Naval District, Charleston Navy Yard ship-commissioning files, 1942-1945 (record identifier 2694599) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NARA Atlanta finding aid 2694599, Charleston Navy Yard commissioning-file inventory, LSM-164 entry (Box 6)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- This hull is itemized by name in the federal archival inventory of Charleston Navy Yard ship-commissioning files: 'LSM-164, Landing Ship, Medium, commissioning date 8/26/1944, Box 6' — corroborating the 26 August 1944 commissioning date from NavSource from an independent federal-records source.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1944
- Limitations
- Confirms identity and commissioning date only; the finding aid itself states it covers 'correspondence, invitations, and instructions relating to the commissioning of naval vessels' — not construction specifications or material/insulation records. No asbestos or hazmat content in the finding aid. The underlying Box 6 folder was not retrieved (finding aid is a box-level inventory, not digitized folder content).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-164-lsm164-02
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[3]NARA, 'Asbestos' research guide, Navy guided topics (archives.gov) [other_primary]
- Locator
- archives.gov/research/military/navy/guided-topics/asbestos — research-approach section
- Finding type
- regulatory
- Finding
- Official NARA guidance on how ship-specific asbestos research is conducted: start from the ship's DANFS history, then search Bureau of Ships (RG 19) correspondence files arranged by ship designation, General Information Books (ship system layouts), Board of Inspection and Survey reports, and Cartographic Branch engineering drawings; sister ships built at the same yard may supply comparative information where hull-specific records are thin.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- n/a (standing research guide)
- Limitations
- This is a research-path lead, not a finding: the guide names no ship and contains no asbestos content specific to LSM-164 or Charleston Navy Yard. The RG 19 correspondence, GIB, and BuShips drawing leads named here for this hull remain unpursued (undigitized/not retrieved this session) — carried in gaps.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-164-lsm164-03
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[4]GAO, Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure, HRD-80-2 (Oct 18, 1979; justia mirror, gao.gov blocks automated fetch) [gao]
- Locator
- GAO HRD-80-2 via gao.justia.com mirror — findings and Navy-policy sections
- Finding type
- gov_survey
- Finding
- GAO documented that, as of 1979, 'recently constructed Navy ships have little or no asbestos thermal insulation, [but] other Navy ships contain large quantities of asbestos,' and that the Navy's 1975 policy limited removal/replacement to damaged insulation requiring repair, broadened only in 1979 to selectively replace insulation in high-maintenance areas. The GAO's reviewed fieldwork sites were the Long Beach and Norfolk Naval Shipyards.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1979
- Population
- Navy shipyard workers, Long Beach and Norfolk Naval Shipyards (fieldwork sites)
- Limitations
- Program-level documentation covering Long Beach and Norfolk Naval Shipyards specifically — NOT Charleston Navy Yard, and not this hull. Supports general era context only (Navy ships of this vintage broadly carried asbestos insulation); does not establish materials, quantity, or exposure aboard LSM-164. Direct gao.gov fetch confirmed blocked (HTTP 403, 2026-09-30); justia mirror used and live-verified.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-164-lsm164-04
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[5]Era inference built on: NavSource specifications (diesel propulsion, no steam plant); GAO HRD-80-2 (Navy-wide asbestos insulation use through the early 1970s, ev-04); NARA asbestos research guide (standard era applications referenced generally for Navy hulls, ev-03) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource specifications block (propulsion); GAO HRD-80-2 Navy-policy section
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- A diesel-powered LSM-1 class landing ship built mid-1944 at a Navy yard during wartime construction tempo sits inside the Navy's documented era of extensive shipboard asbestos insulation use (GAO HRD-80-2). As a diesel vessel with no boiler/turbine plant, the steam-lagging pathway of larger combatants does not apply; era-standard applications aboard a small diesel landing craft of this type and period would instead be thermal/bulkhead insulation, diesel-exhaust lagging, gaskets, valve packing, and electrical cable insulation.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1944-1946
- Population
- Charleston Navy Yard construction trades (1944); crew (1944-46)
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only — no hull-specific insulation survey, material list, or work package located for LSM-164. Names era-standard application categories, not confirmed installed materials, manufacturer, or quantity. No Charleston-specific NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation was located to ground this at the yard level (searched; see search_ledger) — the inference rests on fleet-wide GAO documentation, not a Charleston-specific survey.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-164-lsm164-05
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[6]CourtListener API v4 searches (this record): opinion search on 'LSM-164' (keyword, 11 results, all false-positive 'LSM'/'164' token matches unrelated to this vessel); opinion search on exact phrase "LSM-164" (0 results); RECAP docket search on exact phrase "LSM-164" (0 results). Plus a secondary general-web sweep for 'LSM-164 mesothelioma asbestos lawsuit' (no qualifying hit). [court_record]
- Locator
- CourtListener API v4 search results, 2026-09-30 (opinion type=o broad + exact; RECAP type=r exact)
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- No qualifying asbestos (or other) litigation naming this hull was located. CourtListener's exact-phrase searches of both opinions and RECAP dockets for "LSM-164" returned zero results; the broader keyword opinion search returned 11 hits, none of which reference this vessel, the hull number, or 'landing ship medium' — all are name-collision false positives on the letters 'LSM' (e.g., 'letter sorting machine' operator litigation; 'L.S.M. General Contractors, Inc.'; an 'LSM Children Trust'). This is a completed negative result, not a throttled/blocked search.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 2026-09-30
- Limitations
- Absence of a located case does not prove no exposure occurred — only that no qualifying public litigation record naming this hull was found in the repositories searched. Searches were run under exact hull-number phrasing per batch protocol; 'USS LSM-164' and name variants were not separately re-run but would not be expected to surface additional exact-phrase hits given the zero-result exact search. Does not establish or defeat any individual claim.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-164-lsm164-06
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[7]EXCLUDED: a general-web-search AI synthesis asserted LSM-164 was 'sold to Tung Hwa Trading Co., of Singapore on 7 October 1947, and converted to merchant service' — no underlying source URL was produced for this claim, and it directly contradicts NavSource's own disposition line ('sold, December 1946, to A. G. Schoonmaker, New York, NY, fate unknown'). [other_primary]
- Locator
- n/a — exclusion note only
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- CORRECTION/EXCLUSION: the 'Tung Hwa Trading Co., Singapore, 7 October 1947' disposition claim is NOT used anywhere in this record. It surfaced only as an unsourced search-engine synthesis, could not be traced to any primary or secondary document, and conflicts with the NavSource disposition ('A. G. Schoonmaker, New York, NY, December 1946, fate unknown'), which is corroborated for identity/date purposes by the independent NARA finding aid (ev-02). NavSource's 'fate unknown' stands as the record of this field.
- Verification
- disputed
- Role
- correction
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-30
- Study period
- 1946-1947
- Limitations
- This row exists to prevent the untraceable claim from being silently adopted in any downstream use of this record. Not a material or asbestos claim.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-164-lsm164-07