Evidence
10 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-10).
-
[1]research packet 621-packet.md [other_primary]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-overton-county-lst1074-pkt-621-packet-md
-
[2]Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS), 'Overton County' (LST-1074) - NHHC live page, published 18 Aug 2015 (verified live 2026-10-02; note the hyphenated variant overton-county.html 404s - the canonical URL uses an underscore) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS 'Overton County' entry, danfs/o/overton_county.html (live NHHC page)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- LST-1074 was laid down 24 February 1945 by Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyards, Inc., Hingham, Mass.; launched 27 March 1945; and commissioned 21 April 1945, Lieutenant John Gay in command. After a shakedown cruise in the Chesapeake Bay, LST-1074 got underway 6 June for Pearl Harbor via the Panama Canal. After unloading her cargo of LCT sections and cargo nets at Pearl Harbor and conducting various operations in the islands, she took on troops and vehicles of the 5th Marine Division and of the 302nd Naval Construction Battalion with pontoon gear and on 29 August got underway for Sasebo, Kyushu, Japan. On 2 October she arrived in Subic Bay, Luzon, P.I. and operated in the Western Pacific until returning to San Francisco 7 January 1946. After operation on the West Coast she was placed out of commission in reserve 4 September 1946. Named Overton County on 1 July 1955, she was struck from the Navy List 1 November 1958. DANFS header: dp. 4,080; l. 328'; b. 50'; dr. 11'2"; s. 12 k.; cpl. 119; a. 8 40mm.; cl. LST-511. DANFS namesake note: 'A county in the state of Tennessee.'
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1945-1958
- Population
- Ship's company (~117-119) plus embarked troops (spec 163; embarked 5th Marine Division troops and 302nd NCB personnel during the Sasebo lift)
- Limitations
- Authoritative service history; contains no asbestos, insulation, or hazardous-material information. DANFS header class entry reads 'LST-511' while NavSource and standard references group this hull in the LST-542 class - carried as LST-542-class with the discrepancy noted. DANFS gives no battle-star count; the omission is consistent with a post-V-J-Day arrival (she reached Sasebo in September 1945, after hostilities ended). Complement figure (119) conflicts with NavSource spec block (13 officers + 104 enlisted = 117) - both carried. Decommissioning location not stated; Wikipedia-level detail (Hunter's Point mothballing, Columbia River reserve berth) is not in DANFS and is treated as unverified.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-overton-county-lst1074-01
-
[3]NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive, USS Overton County (LST-1074) ex-USS LST-1074 - LST-542 class identification, specification block, occupation-service table, CO roster, and photo caption record [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource page 10/16/161074, specification block, awards table, command history, photo captions
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identifies the hull as an LST-542 Class Tank Landing Ship. Laid down 24 February 1945 at Bethlehem Hingham Shipyards, Inc., Hingham, MA; launched 27 March 1945; commissioned USS LST-1074, 21 April 1945, LT. John Gay USNR in command. WWII assignment: Asiatic-Pacific Theater, LST Flotilla Thirty-Four (CAPT. C. A. H. H. Tiemroth), LST Group One Hundred, LST Division Two Hundred. Navy Occupation Service Medal (Asia clasp) periods: 8 September - 1 October 1945; 15-28 October 1945; 10 November - 8 December 1945. Decommissioned 4 September 1946; laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet; named Overton County (LST-1074) 1 July 1955; struck from the Naval Register 1 November 1958; sold 29 June 1959 to Foss Maritime for conversion to a concrete barge, completed in 1960; resold (date unknown) to Salmon Bay Barge Line, Inc., Seattle WA, renamed Santos; last known disposition: operating as a cargo barge by Salmon Bay Barge Line as of 2008. Specification block: 1,625 t light / 4,080 t full load / 2,366 t beaching; 328' o.a. x 50'; speed 11.6 kts trial; endurance 24,000 miles at 9 kts; complement 13 officers / 104 enlisted; troop accommodations 16 officers / 147 enlisted; boats 2 LCVP; armament (ultimate design) 2 twin 40mm w/Mk 51 directors, 4 single 40mm, 12 single 20mm; propulsion two General Motors 12-567A 900 hp diesels, single Falk main reduction gears, three diesel-drive 100 kW 230V D.C. ship's service generators, two propellers 1,700 shp, twin rudders - a diesel plant with no boilers. Awards ribbon display: American Campaign Medal; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal; World War II Victory Medal; Navy Occupation Service Medal (Asia clasp). CO roster: LT. John Gay USNR (21 Apr 1945 - 29 Aug 1945); LT. Roy A. Taylor USNR (29 Aug 1945 - 16 Jan 1946); LTjg. Arthur L. Carr Jr. USNR (16 Jan - 2 May 1946); LTjg. Sherman S. Lippman USNR (2 May - Jul 1946); ENS. W. C. Dersch USNR (Jul - 4 Sep 1946). Photo record: LST-1074 photographed in Sasebo Harbor, Kyushu, alongside USS LSM-344 and USS LST-1082 (Richard W. Fiedrich collection, USS LSM-467).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1945-2008
- Population
- Ship's company ~117 (13 officers/104 enlisted spec) plus embarked troops up to ~163
- Limitations
- Volunteer-compiled archival page quoting Navy sources; consistent with DANFS where they overlap and adds the occupation-service windows, unit assignments, spec block, CO roster, and the post-1959 merchant chain. Spec data are equipment descriptions only - no asbestos content stated or implied. 'Concrete barge' wording for the Foss conversion vs 'cement barge' in other sources - the distinction (deck barge later fitted for cement carriage) is noted in gaps. Salmon Bay resale date unknown in NavSource; Nauticapedia gives 1989 - carried as approximate.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-overton-county-lst1074-02
-
[4]Wikimedia Commons category 'Santos (ship, 1945)' - registry and identity record for the ex-LST-1074 hull: USCG Doc. #286313; registered length 327.7 ft, beam 50 ft; tonnage 3,021 GT / 3,021 NT; year of build 1945; corroborated by MarineLink US Maritime Intelligence vessel record for SANTOS (operator Salmon Bay Barge Line, Inc.; USCG no. 286313; year 1945; equipment 'CEMENT PUMP'; operating area Seattle/Puget Sound/Columbia River/Richmond BC/Baja Mexico/Maui) [other_primary]
- Locator
- commons.wikimedia.org Category:Santos (ship, 1945) description block; intelligence.marinelink.com/vessels/vessel/santos-338703
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Registry-level identity chain for the barge: originally (1945) U.S. Navy tank landing ship LST-1074, built at Bethlehem Hingham Shipyard; sold to Foss Tug & Launch Company (later Foss Maritime) and converted to a cement barge as Foss 201; by at least 2007 renamed Santos under Salmon Bay Barge Line Inc., Seattle, Washington; USCG Doc. #286313; registered dimensions 327.7 ft x 50 ft, 3,021 GT/NT; still in service as a cement barge as of 2024 (Commons category text) and photographed at Seattle 7 March 2020 (Nauticapedia/Kyle Stubbs photo). MarineLink's fleet record independently confirms USCG number 286313, year 1945, 3,021 net tons, 'CEMENT PUMP' equipment, and Salmon Bay Barge Line operation.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1959-2026
- Population
- Barge crews and stevedores (Foss ~1960-1981; Salmon Bay ~1989-2026)
- Limitations
- Wikimedia Commons is community-curated and MarineLink aggregates documentation data; the convergent USCG documentation number (286313), dimensions, and cement-barge role across both (plus the Nauticapedia photo filename) support the identity chain, but no government registry page was retrieved directly - USCG PSIX was unreachable this pass (see search_ledger). Foss-to-Salmon-Bay transfer date and any intermediate owners are not stated by these sources. Contains no asbestos or hazmat information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-overton-county-lst1074-03
-
[5]Nauticapedia (Maritime Museum of BC heritage vessel database), 'LST-1074 (U.S.S.)' and name-variant records 'Overton County' / 'Foss 201' / 'Santos (II)' - citing Merchant Vessels of the United States (1960-1989), MVUS annual data files 1992-2026, and USCG PSIX (accessed 10 July 2026) [other_primary]
- Locator
- nauticapedia.ca/vessel.php?id=110302 (and duplicate name records 110645/110646/110647); The Dispatcher (ILWU), vol. 23 no. 1, 13 Jan 1965, p. 2 col. 'Race Against Willamette Flood Rise' sidebar (digitized scan)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Ownership chain from registry-derived data: U.S. Navy 1945-1958; Foss Launch & Tug Co., Seattle 1958-1981; Salmon Bay Barge Line Inc., Seattle 1989-2026. Rebuilds: '1958 converted to deck barge. Later modified to carry cement.' Historical note (record current as of ~July 2026): 'She was towed to Mexico (presumably Ensenada) for scrapping in June 2026.' If accurate, the 1945 hull survived ~81 years, the last ~65 as a commercial barge. The Foss-era barge identity is independently corroborated by a period primary source: The Dispatcher, the ILWU's official newspaper (vol. 23 no. 1, 13 January 1965, San Francisco), records 'the barge Foss-201, based in Seattle' landing 600 tons of emergency supplies during the December 1964-January 1965 Northwest flood.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1945-2026
- Population
- Barge crews, stevedores, and (June 2026) scrapyard workers if the tow occurred as reported
- Limitations
- Secondary heritage database; the June 2026 scrapping tow is a SINGLE-SOURCE report with the destination itself hedged ('presumably Ensenada') - carried as partial, not confirmed. Ownership-year brackets conflict with the NavSource sale date (29 June 1959 vs Nauticapedia's 1958 ownership start) and leave 1981-1989 unstated - in gaps. Conversion year '1958' conflicts with NavSource 'sold 29 June 1959, conversion completed 1960' - in gaps. No asbestos or hazmat content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-overton-county-lst1074-04
-
[6]U.S. Naval Institute, Naval History magazine vol. 35 no. 3 (June 2021), 'The Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard in World War II' by Will Buckley [reputable_press]
- Locator
- usni.org Naval History June 2021 article body text
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Builder-yard context for the hull's construction: Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard operated December 1941 to 1945 on Weymouth Back River, Hingham MA, built to relieve maxed-out Bethlehem Steel yards; workforce peaked above 23,500 (including 2,700+ women); produced Evarts, Edsall, Cannon, and Buckley-class destroyer escorts plus landing ship tanks; set a record building a destroyer escort in 23 days and five LSTs in 50 hours; built 227 ships total and twice earned the Army-Navy 'E' Award. LST-1074 was among the yard's late-war LST production (laid down 24 February 1945, launched 31 days later - consistent with the documented mass-production pace).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1941-1945
- Population
- Bethlehem-Hingham yard workforce (23,500+ at peak, 1941-1945)
- Limitations
- Yard-level context, not a hull record: establishes the construction environment (mass wartime production at a Bethlehem emergency yard) but contains no asbestos or materials statement and does not document LST-1074 individually. The article's class-name renderings ('Edwal' for Edsall, 'landing ship tanks') carry minor errors; production totals cited from it are approximate.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-overton-county-lst1074-05
-
[7]Corn JK, Starr J. 'Historical perspective on asbestos: policies and protective measures in World War II shipbuilding.' Am J Ind Med 12(4):359-373 (1987) [other_primary]
- Locator
- Am J Ind Med 12(4):359-373 (1987), DOI 10.1002/ajim.4700120402
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Peer-reviewed scholarship documents that WWII-era U.S. shipyards extensively installed asbestos-containing insulation, lagging, and gaskets in naval construction - the era and program under which this hull was built (early 1945, wartime mass production at a Bethlehem emergency yard). For a diesel-powered LST with no boilers, the era-relevant applications concentrate in diesel exhaust lagging, engine-room thermal/acoustic insulation, gaskets and packing, deck coverings, accommodation insulation, and winch/crane brake linings. The documented 1959-60 barge conversion and later cement-carrying modification are additional disturbance events; a June 2026 scrapping tow (single-source report) would be the terminal disturbance event.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1941-1945 (study scope); applied 1945-2026
- Population
- WWII-era shipyard workers (Hingham, 1945); wartime crew; barge-conversion yard workers (1959-60); Salmon Bay crews (era context); Mexican scrapyard workers (2026, if the reported tow occurred)
- Limitations
- Era-level scholarship plus class/type inference; the source does not name this hull or class and does not establish that any specific material aboard this ship contained asbestos. No ship-specific product is verified; the diesel plant (no boilers) narrows the exposure-relevant scope relative to steam vessels.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-overton-county-lst1074-06
-
[8]GAO, Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure, HRD-80-2 (Oct 18, 1979) [gao]
- Locator
- gao.gov/products/hrd-80-2 product page
- Finding type
- gov_survey
- Finding
- GAO documented the Navy's asbestos-protection program: standing policy (1975) removed asbestos insulation only when damaged or when required for repairs, modified in 1979 toward selective replacement in high-maintenance areas. These policies postdate this hull's naval service by three decades (out of commission 1946; stricken 1958) and never governed it; the row is carried for era framing only - the Navy's own acknowledgment that asbestos insulation remained in place on its hulls for decades describes the environment in which this ship was built, though her naval career ended long before the policy existed.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1975-1979 (policy period); hull context 1945-1958
- Limitations
- Program-level document; fieldwork yards were other locations, and this hull was commercially owned throughout the policy period. gao.gov returned HTTP 403 to automated fetch in prior passes; product-page description used - full text not retrieved. No ship-specific content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-overton-county-lst1074-07
-
[9]Batch-6562 search ledger (this record): live DANFS/NHHC page; NavSource 161074; Wikimedia Commons registry record; Nauticapedia; MarineLink US Maritime Intelligence; USNI Naval History; NVR; MARAD ShipHistory; NPS/NRHP; NARA deck-log index; CourtListener API v4; USCG PSIX; shipyards.json [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-overton-county-lst1074-01 through sl-uss-overton-county-lst1074-21
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or litigation naming USS LST-1074 / Overton County / Foss 201 / Santos (Doc. 286313) was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). CourtListener opinion and docket searches for "LST-1074" returned zero, "Overton County" AND asbestos returned zero opinions, and the space-variant hull-number query returned zero; the one "Salmon Bay Barge" opinion hit is a Puerto Rico barge name collision (Barge Katy-B, 1st Cir. 2005), not qualifying. The bare exact-name query returned 280 opinions that are all name collisions - Overton County is a real Tennessee county generating its own litigation; no opinion in the set names the vessel. The builder-yard query (Bethlehem Hingham + asbestos) returned a single Puerto Rico longshoremen union-representation case (Antonio Copra v. Jose A. Suro, 236 F.2d 107, 1st Cir. 1956) - an incidental term match, classified other litigation; no asbestos personal-injury opinion naming the Hingham yard or this hull was located. Web-index searches for the ship names plus asbestos surfaced only name collisions (Overton County, Tennessee municipal/court cases; unrelated 'Santos' vessels) and law-firm marketing listicles asserting asbestos aboard WWII Navy ships generally - excluded by source policy. No asbestos litigation naming this hull was located.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 2026-10-02
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - a 1945-built LST is era-consistent with asbestos-containing materials, the hull survived in working barge service for ~65 years with undocumented material condition, and Mexican scrapping (if it occurred June 2026 as reported) would have broken the hull under Mexican jurisdiction with no U.S. hazmat-disclosure trail. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-overton-county-lst1074-08
-
[10]National Archives, 'Navy Deck Logs Available in the National Archives Catalog' (digitized-log index page) and 'Logbooks of the US Navy at the National Archives' (RG 24 reference) [other_primary]
- Locator
- archives.gov/research/military/logbooks/navy-online index (LST section; no LST-1074 entry) and logbooks/navy RG 24 description
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- NARA's online digitized deck-log index begins with 1956 coverage - LST-1074's logbooks (commissioned April 1945 - September 1946) predate the digitized range and are not in the online index. The hull's 1945-46 deck logs and any reserve-fleet records exist physically at the National Archives (RG 24, Logbooks of U.S. Navy Ships and Stations), un-digitized; no ship-generated operational documents for this hull were located digitized at NavSource (no muster-roll or war-diary PDFs on the 161074 page, unlike some sister ships).
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-02
- Study period
- 1945-1946
- Population
- Wartime ship's company
- Limitations
- Archival lead, not an asbestos finding: deck logs document operations and personnel, not materials, and were not retrieved. Physical NARA holdings for this specific hull were not confirmed item-by-item this pass; the statement reflects the digitized index's documented coverage window (post-1956) versus the ship's 1945-46 commission.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-overton-county-lst1074-09