Evidence
9 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-9).
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[1]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, USS LSM-423 (10/14/14423.htm); page last updated 11 April 2025 [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 14423.htm header/history block, specifications block, awards ribbon display, photo captions, commanding-officer list
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Documented for this hull (NavSource Amphibious Photo Archive): LSM-1-class; laid down 28 October 1944 at Dravo Corporation, Wilmington, DE; launched 12 December 1944; commissioned USS LSM-423 11 January 1945, LT. Horace E. Phillips, USNR, in command; WWII Asiatic-Pacific Theater assignment - LSM Flotilla Twelve (LCDR. A. F. Dineen USN), LSM Group Thirty-Six (LT. V. L. Homer USN), LSM Division Seventy-One; postwar Navy Occupation Service Medal (Asia clasp) periods in the Far East 20 September - 5 October 1945 and 20 October 1945 - 4 August 1946; decommissioned 10 August 1946 at NOB Subic Bay, Philippines; 'Struck from the Naval Register, date unknown'; sold 13 February 1948 to the Republic of China; 'Final Disposition, fate unknown.' Spec block: 520 t light / 743 t landing / 1,095 t full load; 203'6" ovl x 34'6" beam; 13.2 kts; complement 5 officers + 54 enlisted; armament one twin 40mm bow + four single 20mm; capacity 5 medium or 3 heavy tanks, or 6 LVTs, or 9 DUKWs; troop accommodations 2 officers + 46 enlisted; endurance 4,900 mi @ 12 kts. Ribbon display: American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, WWII Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal with Asia clasp. Photo captions document the launch at Dravo, Wilmington, 12 December 1944 and the ship moored pierside in Japan, 1946 (contributor: USS LSM / LSMR Association). Commanding officers: Phillips (11 Jan 1945 - 4 Nov 1945), Marks (4 Nov 1945 - Mar 1946), Jensen (Mar - Jun 1946), Wallace (Jun - 10 Aug 1946).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1944-1948
- Population
- Dravo Wilmington construction trades (1944); USN crew (1945-46); Republic of China Navy crew (1948-forward, unconfirmed)
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer secondary compilation, not a primary registry - milestone dates generally track standard references but this page credits no named history extract; secondary sources conflict on the commissioning date (10 vs 11 January 1945) and the primary NHHC fleet-organization document places this hull in Division Seventy-Two, not Seventy-One (see gaps). Page verified live 2026-10-01 (HTTP 200, navsource.net - the .org domain is dead). Contains no asbestos content; no material record for the post-1948 Chinese service or disposition was located.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-423-lsm423-01
-
[2]NHHC / Navy Department Library, 'United States Pacific Fleet Organization, 1 May 1945' (transcribed fleet organization document, online reading room) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- Pacific Fleet Organization 1 May 1945, Amphibious Forces Pacific Fleet section, LSM Flotilla TWELVE / Group 36 / Division 72 table, p. 72 of the transcription
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Primary Navy documentation of this hull's assignment as of 1 May 1945: 'LSM 423' is listed under Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet (Commander Amphibious Forces, Vice Adm. R. K. Turner), LSM Flotilla TWELVE (Commander Lt. Cdr. A. F. Dineen), LSM Group 36, LSM Division 72, alongside LSM 418, 419, 420 (GF), 421, and 422. Confirms the flotilla/group chain reported by NavSource but places this hull in Division Seventy-Two, not the 'Division Seventy-One' NavSource carries - the NHHC document is the stronger source for the 1 May 1945 snapshot; the variant is carried in gaps.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1945-05-01
- Population
- Crew (1 May 1945 muster population)
- Limitations
- Organizational listing only - documents the hull's place in the fleet structure on 1 May 1945, not operations, locations, combat participation, or material content. The division-assignment discrepancy versus NavSource is unresolved (Division 72 vs 71; assignments could have shifted before or after the snapshot date). No asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-423-lsm423-02
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[3]uboat.net Allied Warships, USS LSM 423 (ship/13010.html); shipbuildinghistory.com (Tim Colton), 'Dravo Wilmington' yard table (shipyards/large/dravow.htm); navypedia LSM class table [other_primary]
- Locator
- uboat.net ship/13010.htm data table; shipbuildinghistory.com shipyards/large/dravow.htm row 'LSM 423' and yard-history header; navypedia.org/ships/usa/us_aws_lsm.htm row LSM423
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Secondary-source corroboration of builder, dates, and China transfer: uboat.net Allied Warships lists USS LSM 423 - built by Dravo Corp. (Wilmington, Delaware), ordered 8 April 1944, laid down 28 October 1944, launched 12 December 1944, commissioned 10 January 1945, decommissioned 10 August 1946, sold 13 February 1948. The Dravo Wilmington yard table at shipbuildinghistory.com lists LSM 423 (U.S. Navy Landing Ship, 520 GT, 203 ft) with delivery 10-Jan-45 and disposition 'To China 1948,' and documents the yard lineage - founded 1837 as Betts, Harlan & Hollingsworth, sold to Bethlehem Steel 1904, closed 1926, most of the property sold to Dravo Corporation, with Bethlehem reopening the balance at the outset of WWII so the two companies shared wartime construction; the site is now Riverfront Wilmington/Dravo Plaza. navypedia's LSM class table gives 'to China 2.1948 (美成 [Meicheng])' - an ROC name attribution that conflicts with Wikipedia's Republic of China Navy list, which assigns Mei Cheng (LSM-351) to ex-LSM-422; treated as unconfirmed (see gaps).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1944-1948
- Population
- Dravo Wilmington construction trades (1944-45); USN crew (1945-46)
- Limitations
- Secondary compilations, not primary registries: corroborate builder, laid-down/launched dates, decommission, and sale date, but the commissioning date conflicts with NavSource by one day (10 vs 11 January 1945) and navypedia's ROC-name attribution conflicts with another secondary source - both variants carried in gaps, neither asserted. No asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-423-lsm423-03
-
[4]Era inference built on: NavSource specification block (Fairbanks Morse 38D81/8X10 diesel plant, this hull); Corn & Starr 1987 WWII-shipbuilding asbestos documentation (ev-05); GAO HRD-80-2 Navy asbestos-era program documentation (ev-06) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource specifications block; synthesis of ev-05 and ev-06 era documentation
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- A diesel-powered LSM-1-class landing ship built October-December 1944 at Dravo's Wilmington, Delaware yard sits inside the documented WWII-era U.S. naval shipbuilding asbestos-use period. Era-standard applications aboard a diesel amphibious hull of this type and period were machinery and exhaust thermal insulation/lagging, gaskets, valve packing, electrical insulation, and winch/windlass brake linings in a compact hull volume. As a diesel ship she carried no steam plant - the boiler/steam-line 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 (documented service window)
- Population
- Dravo Wilmington construction trades (1944); USN crew (1945-46); Republic of China Navy crew (1948-forward, unconfirmed); unknown breakers/reusers after 1948
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no hull-specific insulation survey, material list, outfitting specification, or work package located for LSM-423, and no asbestos-use documentation was located for the Dravo Wilmington yard itself (a weaker yard-level base than the NIOSH-surveyed Electric Boat yard or the Charleston Navy Yard in sibling records). Names era-standard applications, not confirmed installed materials. No quantity, no manufacturer attribution for this hull, no present-day presence claim.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-423-lsm423-04
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[5]Corn, Jacqueline Karnell, and Jennifer Starr, 'Historical perspective on asbestos: Policies and protective measures in World War II shipbuilding,' American Journal of Industrial Medicine 11(3):359-373 (1987) [other_primary]
- Locator
- AJIM 11(3):359-373, abstract and article
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Peer-reviewed historical study documents that asbestos was used extensively as a fireproofing and insulating material in U.S. shipbuilding during WWII - the era and program under which this LSM-1-class hull was mass-produced at a commercial contract yard in late 1944 - and that wartime demand drove unprecedented asbestos utilization in ship construction.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1940s era documented; article 1987
- Population
- WWII shipyard workers and ship crews (class context)
- Limitations
- Program/era-level scholarly documentation of asbestos use in WWII shipbuilding generally; does not name this vessel or this yard and does not establish that asbestos was or remains aboard this hull, nor quantity, location, condition, exposure, or causation.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-423-lsm423-05
-
[6]GAO, Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure, HRD-80-2 (Oct 18, 1979; publicly released Oct 22, 1979) [gao]
- Locator
- GAO product page HRD-80-2, Highlights section
- Finding type
- gov_survey
- Finding
- GAO reviewed the Navy's efforts to protect workers from asbestos exposure (fieldwork at the Long Beach and Norfolk Naval Shipyards), covering 'the use of asbestos in Navy ships, the cost of removing asbestos from Navy ships, and compensation programs for asbestos-related disabilities.' Per the report highlights, the Navy's 1975 policy was to remove and replace with nonasbestos materials only insulation that was damaged or had to be removed to accomplish necessary repairs, modified in 1979 to selectively replace asbestos insulation in high-maintenance areas - establishing that asbestos insulation was in service aboard Navy ships of this hull's era and remained a managed material into the late 1970s. This hull left U.S. custody in 1948, before that policy window - the document is era context for the 1944 build, not evidence about this hull's later material state.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1975-1979 policy window
- Population
- Navy shipyard workers; asbestos program review
- Limitations
- Program-level documentation; fieldwork yards were Long Beach and Norfolk - not Dravo Wilmington - so this is era/program context, not a hull or builder-yard finding. Product page verified live via Firecrawl 2026-10-01; the full-report PDF (gao.gov/assets/hrd-80-2.pdf) returned HTTP 403 to direct curl in prior sessions (standing gao.gov access defect) - content quoted from the live Highlights text.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-423-lsm423-06
-
[7]Delaware DNREC, 'PCB Mass Loading from Hazardous Substance Release Sites to Surface Waters of the Christina River Basin' - Phase I report and site appendices (July 2009); Delaware River Basin PCB watershed strategy document (Puget Sound Institute mirror) [other_primary]
- Locator
- DNREC Phase I page, appendix index rows 11a/11b (Dravo Shipyard); Overall Report PDF appendix list; watershed-strategy PDF table listing 'Dravo Shipyard - Harbor Associates (DE-1096)' as an HSCA site
- Finding type
- environmental_record
- Finding
- The builder yard's site is a documented hazardous-substance release site under Delaware remediation programs: DNREC's 'PCB Mass Loading from Hazardous Substance Release Sites to Surface Waters of the Christina River Basin' Phase I study (July 2009, DNREC Contract 06-374-MS-A) evaluated the former Dravo Shipyard as two parcels - 'Dravo Shipyard - Amer Industrial Technologies, Inc.' (Appendix 11-A) and 'Dravo Shipyard - Harbor Associates' (Appendix 11-B; Delaware HSCA site DE-1096 per the Delaware River PCB watershed strategy) - among the Christina River sites assessed for PCB mass loading to surface waters. The shipyard where this hull was built in 1944 thus has a post-industrial environmental-remediation record - a builder-yard context, not a hull finding.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 2009 (study); yard operation 1837-c.1970s
- Population
- Dravo Wilmington / successor-site workforce; Christina River watershed population (remediation-era)
- Limitations
- Builder-yard environmental record only: documents the yard site's post-closure hazardous-substance remediation status (PCB-focused HSCA/WATAR evaluation), not asbestos aboard any hull built there. The site appendices are scanned documents without text layers; site-level detail beyond the index entries was not extracted. No survey ties yard contamination to this vessel. Does not establish presence, exposure, or causation for this hull.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-423-lsm423-07
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[8]Batch-6232 search ledger (this record): NavSource (live); uboat.net (live); shipbuildinghistory.com Dravo yard table (live); NHHC Pacific Fleet Organization 1 May 1945 (live); NHHC DANFS checks; NVR scope check; MARAD ShipHistory; CourtListener opinion + docket searches; NARA catalog/RG 24; NARA RG 181 district guide; GAO product page; DNREC Christina River PCB study; ROC-Navy list cross-checks [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-lsm-423-01 through sl-uss-lsm-423-14
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or verified litigation naming USS LSM-423 was found in the public sources searched. CourtListener returned zero results at both the opinion and docket levels - authenticated API v4, HTTP 200, count 0 - for 'LSM-423', 'LSM 423', and 'USS LSM-423'. Secondary web sweeps surfaced no 'asbestos aboard' claims for this hull at all - no law-firm listicle content was found to exclude.
- 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 - a late-1944 wartime-built amphibious hull is era-consistent with retained asbestos-containing materials, and the hull's 1948 onward Chinese service and unknown final disposition leave material fate wholly unrecorded. Deck logs, Dravo work packages, and the sale/transfer contract file are undigitized leads. Does not establish presence or absence; does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-423-lsm423-08
-
[9]NARA Guide to Federal Records, RG 24 (Bureau of Naval Personnel - logbooks/deck logs) and RG 181 (Naval Districts and Shore Establishments, 181.2.3 Fourth Naval District entries) [other_primary]
- Locator
- RG 181 guide sections 181.2.3 (4th Naval District, Philadelphia); RG 24 logbooks guide; NARA catalog search attempted (JS-rendered)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Archival leads, unsurveyed: WWII-era deck logs for USS LSM-423 (January 1945 - August 1946) are expected in NARA RG 24 (Logbooks of U.S. Navy Ships and Stations) at NARA II, College Park - not located in digitized public sources this session (catalog JS-rendered, API keyless-blocked). RG 181 Fourth Naval District (Philadelphia) holdings listed in the NARA guide are pre-1927 general correspondence - no ship commissioning-files series comparable to the Sixth Naval District Charleston finding aid was located for the Dravo Wilmington commissioning; the ship's 1948 Foreign Military Sales-era transfer documentation (sales contract / transfer certificate) would sit in security-assistance or foreign-transfer records, also undigitized.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-01
- Study period
- 1945-1948 (record coverage window)
- Limitations
- Archival lead only: establishes where hull-specific records likely sit, not their contents. No asbestos content in the finding aids. Deck-log existence for this hull presumed from standard RG 24 coverage but not confirmed item-level; foreign-transfer file location is inference from program structure, not a located record.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-lsm-423-lsm423-09