Evidence
7 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-7).
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[1]DANFS, 'Oriskany (CV-34)' - NHHC ship histories (migrated entry) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS narrative paragraphs covering the 1951, 1954, 1956-59, 1961, 1964, and 1972 yard periods and the 1976 decommissioning
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS documents repeated exposure-relevant yard periods: first major overhaul at New York Naval Shipyard from mid-November (1951) including a new flight deck; San Francisco Naval Shipyard six-month modernization overhaul from April 1954; entered San Francisco Naval Shipyard 1 October 1956 for the Essex-class modernization (decommissioned there 2 January 1957) - over 26 months shipyard workers stripped and completely rebuilt the flight deck with an angled launch station, enclosed hurricane bow, larger CIC, and improved messing/living quarters, with Puget Sound Naval Shipyard workers at Bremerton installing more powerful steam catapults for part of the overhaul; recommissioned at San Francisco Naval Shipyard 7 March 1959; San Francisco Naval Shipyard five-month overhaul from 30 March 1961 (first carrier NTDS installation); four-month Puget Sound overhaul summer 1964; Hunters Point winter restricted availability January 1972; plus dry dock at Yokosuka 28 July - 11 August (year of the 1972 tour). Decommissioned 30 September 1976 and towed to Bremerton reserve.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-18
- Study period
- 1950-1976
- Limitations
- Documents the scale and timing of industrial work aboard (a 26-month near-total rebuild plus repeated overhauls) without describing insulation or asbestos materials - yard periods are exposure-relevant context, not material findings.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-oriskany-cv34-02
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[2]O'Neil v. Crane Co., 53 Cal. 4th 335, 266 P.3d 987, 135 Cal. Rptr. 3d 288 (2012), No. S177401 (affirming nonsuit; reversing Ct. App. 2/5 B208225; Los Angeles Super. Ct. BC360274) [court_record]
- Locator
- Opinion, Background sections I-II ('Defendants' Pump and Valve Products on Navy Warships'; 'Plaintiff's Exposure to Asbestos')
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- Published California Supreme Court opinion reciting undisputed record facts: 'Patrick O'Neil served on the USS Oriskany (Oriskany) from 1965 to 1967,' an Essex-class carrier carrying up to 4,000 crew. Crane Co. and Warren Pumps supplied equipment for the Oriskany's steam propulsion system 'in 1943 or earlier, at least 20 years before O'Neil worked aboard the ship.' O'Neil 'supervised the enlisted men who repaired equipment in the engine and boiler rooms. This work exposed him to airborne asbestos fibers' - repairmen first removed outer insulation (generating large amounts of asbestos dust) and flange gaskets, and internal gaskets/packing in valves and pumps generally contained asbestos per Navy specifications; the asbestos-containing materials were made by third parties, not defendants. O'Neil died of mesothelioma. Trial court granted nonsuits for defendants; the Court of Appeal reversed; the Supreme Court REVERSED the Court of Appeal, holding a manufacturer is not liable in strict liability or negligence for harm caused by another manufacturer's product unless its own product contributed substantially to the harm or it participated substantially in creating a harmful combined use - the landmark 'component parts'/'bare metal' defense ruling.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-18
- Study period
- 1943 (equipment supply) - 2012 (opinion)
- Population
- Sailor aboard CV-34 1965-1967; engine- and boiler-room repair supervision; alleged asbestos exposure; later mesothelioma death
- Limitations
- Stage discipline: the exposure recital is undisputed record fact recited in a published opinion - stronger than a bare pleading - but the holding is a legal-duty ruling FOR defendants; no product defect, exposure causation, or damages was ever adjudicated on the merits. The opinion also notes no evidence that defendants' own products required asbestos. Ship link is direct: the opinion names USS Oriskany throughout (this is the corrected attribution - the opinion concerns Oriskany, NOT USS Hornet).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-oriskany-cv34-03
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[3]DANFS, 'Oriskany (CV-34)' (migrated entry) for striking and sinking; NavSource CV-34 status lines/official USN photo captions for tow dates and contractor-default detail [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS final paragraph; NavSource CV-34 'Fate' block and photo captions
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Disposal chain per DANFS and NavSource: decommissioned 30 September 1976 and towed from Alameda to Bremerton (2-30 October 1976); remained in reserve until struck from the Navy list 25 July 1989 'for use as a museum ship or scrapping.' Scrapping efforts failed - a contractor defaulted and the Navy repossessed the ship (contract terminated 30 July 1997). Ex-Oriskany was towed Corpus Christi to Pensacola 15-20 December 2004 as the Navy's first aircraft carrier prepared for sinking as an artificial reef under FY2004 NDAA authority; a June 2005 sinking was postponed and she was towed to Beaumont for hurricane season; 'after many years of planning and hazardous material clean up, the aircraft carrier was sunk as an artificial reef off Pensacola, Florida, 17 May 2006' (DANFS), in ~212 feet of water about 24 miles offshore.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-18
- Study period
- 1976-2006
- Limitations
- The sinking and hazmat-cleanup fact are DANFS-verified; intermediate milestones (1976 tow, 1997 contractor default, 2004-05 tows) rest on NavSource. DANFS does not quantify the hazardous-material cleanup - the EPA/Navy reefing EA would be the detailed record but was not retrieved in this pass.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-oriskany-cv34-04
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[4]Batch-16 search ledger (this record): CourtListener exact-name + hull-number sweeps [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger row sl-uss-oriskany-cv34-03
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- CourtListener sweeps for this hull returned exactly the O'Neil litigation and nothing else: "USS Oriskany" asbestos and "Oriskany" asbestos carrier Navy each returned the depublished 2009 Court of Appeal opinion and the 2012 Supreme Court opinion only; "CV-34" asbestos returned eight docket-string collisions (unrelated cases citing 'CV-34' docket numbers). No other qualifying asbestos litigation naming this hull was found.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-18
- Study period
- 2026-09-18
- Limitations
- A null result beyond O'Neil is not proof that no other exposure claims exist - unindexed state-court and settled matters are invisible to opinion databases. Reported as a search outcome, not as a fact about the ship.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-oriskany-cv34-05
-
[5]Batch-16 search ledger (this record): full source sweep [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-oriskany-cv34-01 through sl-uss-oriskany-cv34-05
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No hull asbestos survey, abatement contract, or quantified hazmat-disposal accounting for the 2004-06 reef preparation was located in the sources searched. DANFS confirms 'hazardous material clean up' preceded sinking, but no public inventory (asbestos tonnage removed, compartments remediated) was found; the sunken hull went down with whatever material remained after that cleanup.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-18
- Study period
- 2026-09-18
- Limitations
- The Navy/EPA artificial-reef environmental assessment for ex-Oriskany (the first carrier reefing) likely contains the hazmat-removal detail; it is flagged as an archival lead rather than verified content. Not a claim that no documentation exists anywhere.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-oriskany-cv34-06
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[6]O'Neil v. Crane Co., 53 Cal. 4th 335, Background I (Navy specification recital); Essex-class profile (class-a/essex-class.class.json) [other_primary]
- Locator
- O'Neil opinion general specification passages; class profile era-application list
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Class/era context: Essex-class carriers were built 1941-45 under peak-era Navy insulation specifications, and O'Neil's own record generalizes it - Navy specifications required asbestos-containing insulation on all external surfaces of steam propulsion systems, asbestos in valve packing/gaskets, and 'warships could not have been built without it' (per plaintiffs' expert, no acceptable substitute until at least the late 1960s). Oriskany was additionally the SCB-27/SCB-125 modernization prototype, meaning her systems were substantially rebuilt 1957-59.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-18
- Study period
- 1941-1959 (construction and rebuild era)
- Limitations
- The O'Neil specification recital describes Navy-wide requirements, not a hull survey - it corroborates the exposure-mechanism account aboard this ship but must not be read as a measured material inventory for CV-34.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-oriskany-cv34-07
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[7]DANFS, 'Oriskany (CV-34)' - NHHC ship histories (migrated entry) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS migrated HTML entry, construction/spec-block paragraph
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS entry documents construction and career: Oriskany (CV-34) laid down 1 May 1944 at Brooklyn, N.Y., by the New York Navy Yard; launched 13 October 1945; construction suspended 12 August 1947; held in preservation until after the Korean War began, then rushed to completion; commissioned at her building yard (renamed New York Naval Shipyard) 25 September 1950, Capt. Percy H. Lyon in command. Spec block: displacement 27,100; length 888'; extreme beam 147'6"; draft 31'; speed 33.0 knots; complement 3,460; armament 8 5-inch + 28 3-inch guns; aircraft 80+; class Oriskany.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-18
- Study period
- 1944-1950
- Limitations
- Authoritative Navy history for milestones; contains no asbestos or insulation-material content. Spec block lists class as 'Oriskany' - she was the long-hull (Ticonderoga-group) Essex variant and the SCB-27 prototype.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-oriskany-cv34-01