Evidence
8 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-8).
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[1]research packet jh-packet.md (3 sources cited) [other_primary]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-melvin-dd335-pkt-jh-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, Melvin I (DD-335) - verbatim transcription (hazegray DANFS archive via Wayback capture 2025-05-15; text independently cross-verified against the losthistory.net hazegray mirror and the Tin Can Sailors/destroyers.org 'Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, August 2015' page; live NHHC page returns 404) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry 'Melvin I (DD-335)' spec line + namesake bio + full service narrative
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: spec line (DD-335: dp. 1,190; l. 314'5"; b. 31'8"; dr. 9'3" mean; s. 35k.; cpl. 95; a. 4 4", 1 3", 12 21" tt.; cl. Clemson). Laid down 15 September 1920 at the Union Plant, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., San Francisco, Calif.; launched 11 April 1921; sponsored by Miss Laura L. McKinistry; commissioned 31 May 1921, Lt. Comdr. Charles E. Rosendahl in command. After shakedown she operated off the west coast for her entire 9-year career; thrice transited the Panama Canal for Caribbean-based fleet problems (1923, 1924, 1927); after the 1927 exercises cruised north to New York and Newport, then to Nicaragua - off the Bluefields area 25 June to 6 July supporting Marines supervising establishment of the Nicaraguan Guardia Nacional; exercises and type training in Hawaiian waters; after spring 1925 maneuvers made her only trans-Pacific cruise, a goodwill tour to Samoa, Australia, and New Zealand. Entered the Navy yard at Mare Island 17 July 1929 to begin inactivation; on 7 October, in tow of Tern, went south on her last voyage to San Diego, arriving the 11th; decommissioned 8 May 1930; on the 10th towed back to Mare Island for scrapping; struck from the Naval Register 3 November 1930; her materials were sold in the course of the next 2 years. Namesake paragraph: Lt. (jg.) John T. Melvin (b. 16 Oct 1887, Selma, Ala.; midshipman 6 Jul 1907, ensign 7 Jul 1911, resigned 20 Aug 1915, lt. (jg.) Naval Reserve 9 Feb 1917) killed 5 Nov 1917 when the patrol boat Alcedo was sunk by a German submarine - the first American war vessel lost in World War I.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1920-1930
- Population
- Bethlehem Union Plant construction trades 1920-21; crew 1921-1930 (DANFS cpl. 95)
- Limitations
- DANFS documents identity, service history, and the spec line - not materials or asbestos content. Live NHHC DANFS pages return 404 at all probed slugs (melvin.html, melvin-i.html, melvin-ii.html, melvin-dd-335.html); verbatim text is consistent across the hazegray Wayback capture, the losthistory.net mirror, and destroyers.org. Mirror OCR variants ('McRinistry'/'Blueffelds' in the hazegray text vs 'McKinistry'/'Bluefields' in destroyers.org) are transcription artifacts, not substantive.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-melvin-dd335-01
-
[3]NavSource Online Destroyer Photo Archive, USS Melvin (DD-335) page - operating/building data, commanding-officer list, and photo-caption records (Wayback capture 2025-04-30; live navsource.org unreachable this session) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource DD-335 page - 'As Built' data block, Operational and Building Data, photo captions, commanding-officer list
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource data for this hull: class Clemson; displacement 1,215 t; 314'5" oa x 31'8" x 9'10" max; armament 4 x 4"/50, 1 x 3"/23AA, 12 x 21" tt; machinery 26,500 shp, geared turbines, 2 screws; 35 kt; crew 114; call sign NURC. Laid down by Bethlehem Steel, San Francisco 15 September 1920; launched 11 April 1921; commissioned 31 May 1921; decommissioned 8 May 1930; 'Stricken July 22 1930' (conflicts with DANFS 3 Nov 1930 - logged in gaps); 'Sold and broken up for scrap in 1930.' CO list: LCDR Charles E. Rosendahl (31 May 1921-10 Jan 1922, later VADM), LCDR George T. Swasey Jr. (to 10 Dec 1923), LCDR Aquilla G. DiBrell (to 21 Oct 1926), LCDR Joseph A. Murphy (to 25 Jul 1927), LCDR Franklin S. Steinwachs (to 28 Nov 1927), LCDR Lloyd R. Gray (to 8 May 1930). Photo-caption records placing this hull at documented events: NH 1378 (NHHC photo, Melvin underway, undated); U.S. Naval Historical Center photo of six Destroyer Division 36 ships - Farenholt (DD-332), Sumner (DD-333), Hull (DD-330), MacDonough (DD-331), Corry (DD-334), and Melvin (DD-335) - docked together in Mare Island Navy Yard's concrete Dry Dock No. 2 during 15 June-14 July 1922 (courtesy Mare Island Naval Shipyard, 1970); Melvin with MacDonough at Melbourne (the 1925 trans-Pacific goodwill cruise); with La Vallette (DD-315) 4 June 1927; with Stoddert (DD-302) off San Diego c. 1930.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1920-1930
- Population
- Bethlehem San Francisco construction trades 1920-21; USN crew 1921-1930 (NavSource crew figure 114); Mare Island drydock workforce, June-July 1922
- Limitations
- Volunteer-edited specialist archive, not an official record - machinery figures, the 22 Jul 1930 stricken date, and the CO list rest on NavSource rather than digitized official documents. The photo captions quote official NHHC/Naval Historical Center attributions (NH 1378; the Mare Island drydock print) but are cited via NavSource - the underlying NHHC Online Library records were not independently pulled this session. No materials or asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-melvin-dd335-02
-
[4]Destroyer History Foundation (destroyerhistory.org), 'Flush Deckers - Interwar History': 1930 Rehabilitation Program section and scrapped-or-sold roster [other_primary]
- Locator
- destroyerhistory.org/flushdeck/hist_2/ - '1930 Rehabilitation Program' heading, roster table row '335 Melvin' under SCRAPPED OR SOLD
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Specialist documentation of this hull's disposal context: Navy Secretary Charles Francis Adams's annual report to Congress (delivered shortly before the 1929 crash) raised that 60 flush-deckers - 'Bethlehem-built with Yarrow boilers,' including 46 of the 111 ships then in commission - were wearing out, and that because refit could not be justified 'they would be decommissioned with a view to their ultimate removal from the Naval List.' The Foundation's roster of the 1930 Rehabilitation Program lists hull '335 Melvin' under SCRAPPED OR SOLD; 48 mothballed flush-deckers were recommissioned as replacements, and most of the 46 condemned ships were scrapped or sold by 1934. This is consistent with DANFS: inactivation at Mare Island from 17 July 1929, decommissioning 8 May 1930, striking 3 November 1930, materials sold over the next two years.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1929-1934
- Population
- Mare Island inactivation/scrapping workforce 1929-1932
- Limitations
- Specialist secondary compilation (Destroyer History Foundation), not the primary document - the SECNAV annual report itself was not retrieved; the summary is plausible and consistent with DANFS for this hull but rests on the Foundation's sourcing. The roster documents disposal grouping, not materials or asbestos content; the Yarrow-boiler attribution is class/yard-level (Bethlehem-built ships), not a hull-level machinery schedule.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-melvin-dd335-03
-
[5]DANFS specifications block (Clemson class; 35 kt) + NavSource machinery block (26,500 shp, geared turbines, 2 screws) + Atlas shipyard dataset record 'bethlehem-shipbuilding' (aliases include Union Iron Works; yard-level asbestos product documentation incl. lagging, gaskets, Marinite, Unibestos - concentrated on other Bethlehem yards/eras) + Destroyer History Foundation SECNAV-report summary (Bethlehem-built group carried Yarrow boilers) + Rushworth, 'The Navy and Asbestos Thermal Insulation,' Naval Engineers Journal 117(2) (2005), ASNE (peer-reviewed era literature: asbestos was standard in U.S. Navy shipboard pipe and machinery thermal insulation) [other_primary]
- Locator
- DANFS spec block; NavSource DD-335 machinery block; destroyerhistory.org 1930 program roster; shipyards.json yard_id 'bethlehem-shipbuilding'
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/plant inference: this hull is a WWI-program Clemson-class flush-decker built 1920-21 at Bethlehem's Union Plant (Union Iron Works), San Francisco, with a four-water-tube-boiler (Yarrow, per the Bethlehem-built-group attribution in specialist compilations and the 1929 SECNAV-report summary), twin-screw geared-steam-turbine plant rated 26,500 shp / 35 kt. Steam plants of this type and era carried period-standard insulation for which asbestos was the standard marine material: boiler and steam-drum insulation, steam-line lagging, flange and valve gaskets, machinery packing, and fireproofing. Documented yard events where era insulation would have been installed or disturbed: construction at the Union Plant (1920-21); a June-July 1922 drydocking in Mare Island Dry Dock No. 2 (NavSource/NHC photo record); the 1929-30 Mare Island inactivation and final scrapping. The Atlas shipyard dataset documents asbestos product lines at Bethlehem Shipbuilding yards at yard level.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1920-1932
- Population
- Union Iron Works/Bethlehem construction trades 1920-21; USN engineering crews 1921-1930; Mare Island Navy Yard workforce 1922, 1929-1932
- Limitations
- Class/era and builder-yard inference only - NOT a hull-specific finding. No source names asbestos aboard this hull; no materials schedule, survey, or disposal record was located. The bethlehem-shipbuilding yard record's asbestos documentation concentrates on WWII-era Bethlehem yards (Quincy/Sparrows Point) and does not establish 1920-21 San Francisco material use on this hull. Boiler-type attribution (Yarrow) is group-level, not a hull-level machinery schedule. NARA RG 19 Bureau of Ships per-vessel material specifications are the open archival lead.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-melvin-dd335-04
-
[6]CourtListener API v4 authenticated sweeps (type=o opinions and type=r dockets), 2026-09-27: "USS Melvin" o/r; "DD-335" o/r; "Melvin" asbestos o/r [court_record]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-melvin-dd335-07 through sl-uss-melvin-dd335-10; /Users/charlesfletcher/devin-prompts/batch3321-cl-results.log
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- CourtListener sweep complete: 'USS Melvin' opinion index 0 hits and RECAP docket index 0 hits - no published opinion or docket names the ship in any matter (covers both DD-335 and DD-680); 'DD-335' opinion index 0 hits; 'DD-335' docket index 4 hits, all text-level collisions inspected and resolved as non-qualifying - Chapter 7 bankruptcies (Bankr. N.D. Ill. 17-31770 'Mandy Calie Barnes'; Bankr. E.D. Cal. 24-11015 'Pinnacle Foods of California'), an ERISA class action (D. Mass. 1:04-cv-11380 'Evans v. Akers'), and a prisoner civil-rights removal (S.D. Fla. 1:25-cv-25573 'Owens v. Rojas') - the string occurs inside filing text/exhibits, none maritime or asbestos; 'Melvin asbestos' returned 314 opinion hits and 2,828 docket hits, all surname/party-token collisions (plaintiffs named Melvin: Bruley, Chambliss, Desin, 'MELVIN v. 3M', 'Shuttleworth v. Melvin', etc.) - none naming a vessel. No qualifying asbestos litigation naming this hull located.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 2026-09-27
- Limitations
- Litigation coverage is limited to CourtListener-indexed state/federal opinions and federal RECAP dockets; unindexed state trial-court filings, settled MDL-875 claimant records, and non-digital-era suits are not covered - a 1921-1930 exposure claim filed decades ago in a court whose records were never digitized would not appear. The 'Melvin asbestos' sweeps (314 opinions / 2,828 dockets) were resolved by party/token inspection of returned hits rather than full-text review of all 3,100+ items; residual collision risk is a surname or DD-680 reference undetected in unreturned results.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-melvin-dd335-05
-
[7]Batch-3321 search ledger (this record): DANFS via hazegray/losthistory/destroyers.org mirrors; NavSource DD-335 page (Wayback); destroyerhistory.org interwar history; Atlas shipyard dataset; NHHC live-page probes; NARA catalog; CourtListener exact-name and hull-number sweeps [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-melvin-dd335-01 through sl-uss-melvin-dd335-14
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, material inventory, or adjudicated finding naming DD-335 was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). The hull was scrapped at Mare Island in 1930-32 - decades before asbestos documentation, regulation, or litigation - so the postwar documentation channels that produce ship-specific asbestos records for surviving hulls (museum drydock reports, MARAD disposal-condition disclosures, abatement contracts) never existed for her.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 2026-09-27
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - a 1920-21 steam plant is era-consistent with asbestos insulation (ev-04). Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility for any person.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-melvin-dd335-06
-
[8]NARA, Logbooks of the U.S. Navy: RG 24 Entry 118 (NAID 581208) pre-1941 logbooks at Archives I; RG 19 Bureau of Ships records (per-vessel material specifications / General Information Books); Mare Island Naval Shipyard yard records [other_primary]
- Locator
- archives.gov navy logbooks research page; NARA Special List #44 coverage
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Archival leads not yet pulled: (1) NARA RG 24 Entry 118 holds pre-1941 U.S. Navy logbooks (Archives I, Washington, DC) covering this hull's 1921-1930 commissioned period - machinery condition (the worn Yarrow boilers), refits, and the 1929-30 inactivation would be logged at deck level; (2) NARA RG 19 Bureau of Ships records / General Information Books may hold Union Plant (Bethlehem) contract and material specifications for hull 335; (3) Mare Island Naval Shipyard records (inactivation 1929-30 and scrapping yard periods) are an unqueried lead for disposal-phase materials handling.
- Verification
- unverified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1921-1932 records
- Limitations
- Leads only - none of these records was retrieved or reviewed; their content on this hull's materials is unknown and cannot be presumed. A NARA catalog API probe returned no record-level result this session.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-melvin-dd335-07