Evidence
8 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-8).
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[1]research packet 564-packet.md (12 sources cited) [other_primary]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-lsm-346-lsm346-pkt-564-packet-md
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[2]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, USS LSM-346 - construction, service assignments, occupation/China service, decommissioning, disposal, commanding officers, awards, specifications (verified live 2026-10-01) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 10/14/14346.htm header block (timeline), 'Specifications' block, commanding-officers list, awards block, and photo captions
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource timeline for this hull: LSM-1 class Landing Ship Medium; laid down 20 October 1944 at Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Company, Chicago, IL; launched 9 February 1945; commissioned USS LSM-346, 10 March 1945, LTjg. James L. Thomas USNR in command. WWII: Asiatic-Pacific Theater, LSM Flotilla Eleven, LSM Group Thirty-Three, LSM Division Sixty-Six. Post-war Occupation and China service: Navy Occupation Service Medal 4 to 22 September 1945; China Service Medal (extended) 8 October to 2 November 1945 and 27 June 1946 to 14 March 1947. Commanding officers: James L. Thomas (10 Mar 1945-Nov 1945); Dabney W. Watts (Nov 1945-8 Feb 1946); Ben W. Wiseman Jr. (8 Feb-23 Apr 1946); Eugene Gilmour Richardson (23 Apr 1946-1947); Lawrence Allen Schilperoort (1947-11 Jul 1947). Decommissioned 11 July 1947 at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA; struck from the Naval Register, date unknown. Donated 17 February 1948 to the Port of Newport Authority, Newport, OR; converted to a barge and renamed '404'; final disposition, fate unknown. Awards: China Service Medal (extended), American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal (with Asia clasp). Specifications block: displacement 520 t. light / 743 t. landing / 1,095 t. full load; length 203'6" ovl; beam 34'6"; speed 13.2 kts; complement 5 officers, 54 enlisted; armament one twin bow-mounted 40mm and four single 20mm; propulsion two Fairbanks Morse model 38D81/8X10 diesels (1,440 BHP each @ 720 rpm, reversible with hydraulic clutch, direct drive), twin propellers, 2,800 shp; ship's service generators two diesel-drive 100 kW 450V AC and one diesel-drive 20 kW 120V DC. Photo captions: crew and commissioning-ceremony photographs at Dravo Corporation, Wilmington, DE, 24 March 1945; moored pierside in West Loch, Pearl Harbor, March 1946; passing under the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco (date unknown); under way (date/location unknown). History extract credited to LSM-LSMR Amphibious Forces, Vol. II (Turner Publishing Company, Paducah, KY, 1997).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1944-1948
- Population
- Pullman Standard construction trades (1944-45); crew (1945-47); Mare Island decommissioning personnel (1947); Port of Newport Authority barge operators (1948-?)
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer secondary compilation, not a primary registry - its milestones generally track NVR/DANFS, but no DANFS entry exists for this unnamed hull (candidate URL 404 this session). The commissioning date (10 March 1945) conflicts with the commissioning-ceremony photographs dated 24 March 1945 at Dravo Corporation, Wilmington, DE - a different yard than the stated builder; carried in gaps. Contains no asbestos or material content. Complement figure is from the class specifications block, unverified against DANFS/NHHC - carried in gaps, not in the record. Struck date and final disposition unknown per this source.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-346-lsm346-01
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[3]NavSource Online: USS LSM-346 commissioning-ceremony photographs, Dravo Corporation, Wilmington, DE, 24 March 1945 (contributed by CAPT. John C. Kornegay USNR (ret), for his father-in-law LT(jg) A. C. Bachelder, Engineering Officer USS LSM-346) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 10/14/14346.htm photo captions (95k/89k/83k/90k commissioning ceremony images)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Contemporaneous photographs document the USS LSM-346 commissioning ceremony at the Dravo Corporation yard, Wilmington, Delaware, dated 24 March 1945 - including the crew photo, the ceremony, and officers and wives. The contributor identifies his father-in-law, LT(jg) (then ENS) A. C. Bachelder, as the ship's Engineering Officer.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1945
- Population
- LSM-346 commissioning crew and families, March 1945
- Limitations
- Vessel-history documentation only; no asbestos or material content. The 24 March 1945 ceremony date and Dravo Corporation, Wilmington, DE location conflict with the page's own timeline (commissioned 10 March 1945; laid down at Pullman Standard, Chicago, IL) - possible fitting-out or commissioning-site discrepancy; carried in gaps, not reconciled. One caption in the same set mislabels a related hull as 'USS LSM-436' (officers-and-wives photo), suggesting transcription fallibility in the contributed captions.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-346-lsm346-02
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[4]Era inference built on: NavSource LSM specifications block (diesel propulsion, 2 x Fairbanks Morse 38D81/8X10, no steam plant); Atlas shipyard dataset record for Mare Island Naval Shipyard (see ev-04); GAO HRD-80-2 (see ev-05) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource specifications block (propulsion); shipyards.json record 'mare-island-naval-shipyard'; GAO HRD-80-2 product page
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- A diesel Landing Ship Medium built in 1944-45 at a U.S. commercial yard sits squarely inside the Navy's documented asbestos-use era; era-standard applications aboard a 1945 diesel amphibious hull of this size were thermal insulation, machinery and diesel-exhaust lagging, gaskets, valve packing, and electrical insulation in machinery spaces. As a diesel hull 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
- Pullman Standard construction trades (1944-45); crew (1945-47); Mare Island decommissioning personnel (1947)
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no hull-specific insulation survey, material list, work package, or photograph of insulation was located for LSM-346. 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-346-lsm346-03
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[5]Atlas shipyard dataset (shipyards.json), record 'mare-island-naval-shipyard' (evidence_tier 2; flagship ev-mare-island-naval-shipyard-01) [other_primary]
- Locator
- shipyards.json record 'mare-island-naval-shipyard', asbestos_products_documented field
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Yard-level documentation for this hull's decommissioning yard: the Atlas shipyard record for Mare Island Naval Shipyard (Vallejo, CA) documents asbestos products at the yard including Unibestos, Marinite boards, Transite pipes, Kaylo, Careytemp, Gold Bond, Super 66, pump and valve packing, gaskets, bonnet insulation, and refractory materials; the yard record carries evidence_tier 2. LSM-346 was decommissioned at this yard on 11 July 1947.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1947 (this hull's decommissioning); yard documentation spans the yard's operating life
- Population
- Mare Island Naval Shipyard trades, 1947 decommissioning era
- Limitations
- Yard-level documentation, not a hull record: documents asbestos products in use at Mare Island Naval Shipyard generally - LSM-346 is not named in any yard evidence row, and yard product lists do not establish materials installed aboard or handled around this hull. Decommissioning is a lay-up event, not a construction or overhaul availability; the asbestos relevance of the decommissioning yard is weaker than a build or repair yard.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-346-lsm346-04
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[6]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 U.S. Navy era (construction 1944-45, service 1945-47).
- 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 this session) - content via product-page description, consistent with the Batch-01/98/109 treatment of this report.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-346-lsm346-05
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[7]NARA, 'Navy Deck Logs Available in the National Archives Catalog' (digitized deck-log index); NHHC, 'Deck Log Access' (post-1940 logs held at NARA) [other_primary]
- Locator
- archives.gov/research/military/logbooks/navy-online (page text searched for 'LSM-346'/'LSM 346', absent); history.navy.mil/about-us/services-and-policies/deck-log-access.html
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Deck logs for USS LSM-346 (1945-1947 commissioned service) are held by the National Archives (per NHHC, deck logs after 1940 are at NARA) but 'LSM-346' / 'LSM 346' does not appear in the text of the NARA digitized deck-log index page. The logs are the open archival lead for her 1945-47 movements and any recorded yard availabilities.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1945-1947 (log window)
- Limitations
- Archival lead only: the digitized index page text was checked 2026-10-01 and LSM-346 is absent; the physical logs' existence at NARA follows from NHHC's general deck-log custody statement, not from a catalog entry verified for this hull. Deck logs in any case record movements and events, not materials - they are a lead for service history, not an asbestos source.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-346-lsm346-06
-
[8]Batch-6158 search ledger (this record): NavSource (live); DANFS 404; NVR connection failed; NARA digitized deck-log index; uboat.net POST search (no match); shipyards.json cross-check; CourtListener API v4 - all six queries (3 opinion + 3 docket) count 0, genuine negative; GAO product page (blocked); secondary web litigation sweep [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lsm-346-lsm346-01 through -09
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or litigation naming USS LSM-346 / LSM-346 was found in the public sources searched. CourtListener was searched via the authenticated fleet helper on 2026-10-01: opinion queries returned 0 ('USS LSM-346'), 10 ('LSM-346'), and 10 ('LSM 346') hits (HTTP 200 authenticated, 2026-10-01) — every hit a false positive from fuzzy full-text matching, zero mention the hull. The matching docket queries returned 116 ('USS LSM-346'), 493 ('LSM-346'), and 502 ('LSM 346') hits (QA retry ~18:50 CDT, HTTP 200 authenticated) — top results token-collision noise, no vessel or asbestos connection. The negative is genuine; an earlier revision misreported the opinion counts as zero. Secondary web sweeps surfaced no qualifying case; the only 'asbestos aboard Navy ships' material is law-firm marketing content asserting asbestos across pre-1983 Navy ships without hull-specific primary sourcing - excluded by source policy.
- 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 - it establishes only that no ship-specific public documentation was found. Deck logs, Pullman Standard construction records, the 1948 barge-conversion records, and any Port of Newport Authority disposal records are undigitized or unfetched leads. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility. QA note 2026-10-01: the docket half of the CourtListener search was completed by a QA retry (counts 116/493/502; top-hit review found only token-collision noise) - an earlier draft's 'six-of-six count 0' characterization of the docket queries is corrected here; the conclusion (no qualifying litigation) is unchanged.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-346-lsm346-07