Evidence
7 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-7).
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[1]NavSource Online: Submarine Chaser Photo Archive, SC-537 (ex-PC-537) - milestone timeline, specifications, Soviet service and disposition [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 12/150537.htm timeline block and specifications block; 'no DANFS history' note
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Documented for this hull: laid down 29 April 1941 by the Peterson Boat Works, Sturgeon Bay, WI; launched 21 March 1942; commissioned USS PC-537, 5 May 1942; reclassified SC-537, 8 April 1943; transferred to the Soviet Union 25 May 1945 and reclassified BO-304; joined the (Soviet) Pacific Fleet 8 June 1945; took part in the 14 August 1945 Soviet amphibious landings at Chongjin, North Korea; placed out of service 1 February 1954; subsequently scrapped. Specifications: displacement 95 t.; length 110'10"; beam 17'; draft 6'6"; speed 21 kts.; complement 28; armament one 40mm mount, one/two twin .50 cal. machine guns, K-guns and depth charges, two Mk 20 Mousetrap rails; propulsion two 1,540 bhp General Motors (Electro-Motive Div.) 16-184A diesel engines, two shafts. Page also states: 'There is no DANFS history available for SC-537.'
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1941-1954
- Population
- Peterson Boat Works construction trades (1941-42); USN crew (1942-45); Soviet Navy crew (1945-54)
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer secondary compilation, not a primary registry - milestone dates generally track official data but the 25 May 1945 transfer date conflicts with the NHC official-history transfer table's 26 May (see gaps). Contains no asbestos content. The hull's U.S. service record between commissioning (May 1942) and transfer (May 1945) is not narrated on this page - undocumented in located sources.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-sc-537-sc537-01
-
[2]Richard A. Russell, Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy, 1997) - full text via U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Press republication, Appendix 'U.S. Navy Combatant Ships Transferred to the [Soviet navy] May-September 1945' [other_primary]
- Locator
- Appendix transfer table (SC rows, 26 May block; SC 537 - BO-304 - 26 May - 1954-mothballed); chapters on training and transfers
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- The Naval Historical Center's official-history transfer table records this hull by name: SC 537 transferred to the Soviet Navy as BO-304, transfer date 26 May (1945), disposition '1954-mothballed'. Program context from the same work: Project Hula trained some 12,000 Soviet personnel at Cold Bay, Alaska, and transferred 149 ships and craft including 32 submarine chasers; the 2nd Subchaser Division (twenty vessels) was among the prospective units trained; the wooden-hulled subchasers suffered frequent hull damage at Cold Bay and nine required major repair trips to Dutch Harbor. The BO designation stood for 'bolshiye okhotniki za povodnimi lodkami' - large hunters for submarines.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1945-1954 (record coverage); program window May-Sep 1945
- Population
- Soviet 2nd Subchaser Division trainees (Cold Bay, 1945); Soviet Pacific Fleet crews (1945-54)
- Limitations
- Official-history monograph table, not a per-ship register: gives transfer date and final disposition category only. The 26 May transfer date conflicts with NavSource's 25 May 1945 (see gaps); '1954-mothballed' is the table's disposition wording - NavSource gives 'placed out of service 1 February 1954; subsequently scrapped.' Contains no asbestos content. Text retrieved via Firecrawl live scrape; direct curl returned HTTP 403 to non-browser agents.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-sc-537-sc537-02
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[3]NavSource patrol craft index (12/01idx.htm) cross-referenced with SC-537 page - PC-designation block verification [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 12/150537.htm ('commissioned USS PC-537, 5 May 1942; reclassified SC-537, 8 April 1943'); NavSource 12/01idx.htm index rows 'SC-520 ex-PC-520' through 'SC-538 ex-PC-538'
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- CORRECTION / disambiguation: this hull was commissioned as USS PC-537 (5 May 1942) and reclassified SC-537 (8 April 1943). The 'PC-537' designation was administrative, not a PC-461-class assignment: the NavSource patrol-craft index shows the contiguous block SC-520 through SC-538 (and adjacent hulls) all carried 'ex-PC-5xx' designations - these PC numbers were allocated to wooden 110-foot SC-497-type submarine chasers, not to the 173-foot steel PC-461-class patrol craft that occupied other PC number blocks. No steel patrol vessel 'PC-537' ever existed; records naming PC-537 refer to this wooden hull.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- correction
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1942-1943 (designation window)
- Limitations
- Corrects a designation misidentification risk, not a material claim. The PC/SC reclassification sequence is documented in NavSource's index and this hull's page; the reclassification date (8 April 1943) is NavSource-sourced. No asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-sc-537-sc537-03
-
[4]Era inference built on: NavSource SC-537 page (SC-497 class, wooden hull, GM EMD 16-184A diesel plant - no steam); SC-497-class article context (438 boats built 1941-1944, 'splinter fleet' wooden construction - secondary); GAO HRD-80-2 (see ev-05) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 12/150537.htm specifications block (propulsion, wooden construction); GAO HRD-80-2 product-page description
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- A wooden-hulled 110-foot diesel submarine chaser built 1941-42 sits inside the Navy's documented asbestos era. Era-standard applications aboard small diesel craft of this type and period were diesel engine-exhaust lagging, thermal insulation in machinery spaces, piping gaskets and valve packing, electrical insulation, and fire-resistant cement-board paneling of the period. Two characteristics bound the inference downward: the hull was wood rather than steel, and the plant was diesel rather than steam - wooden subchasers carried substantially less asbestos-bearing material than steam combatants, and no boiler/turbine lagging pathway applies.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1941-1954
- Population
- Peterson Boat Works construction trades (1941-42); USN crew (1942-45); Soviet Navy crews (1945-54); 1954 breakup/scrapping workforce
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no hull-specific insulation survey, material list, or work package located for SC-537. Names era-standard applications, not confirmed installed materials. No quantity; no manufacturer attribution. Does not establish that asbestos was or was not present aboard this hull.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-sc-537-sc537-04
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[5]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 construction (1941-42), U.S. service era (1942-45), and Soviet service era (1945-54).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- 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 2026-10-03) - content via product-page description.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-sc-537-sc537-05
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[6]NARA photograph holdings credited in NavSource captions ('National Archives photo' via T. R. Treadwell / Splinter Fleet website; Historical Collections of the Great Lakes photos as PC-537); RG 24 deck logs for PC-537/SC-537 (1942-1945) - undigitized lead [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 12/150537.htm photo captions (Historical Collections of the Great Lakes; 'National Archives photo' via T. R. Treadwell / Splinter Fleet); RG 24 deck-log series
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Archival leads exist for this hull's undocumented U.S. service period: NavSource captions credit National Archives photography of SC-537 and Historical Collections of the Great Lakes photography of the boat as PC-537. Deck logs for USS PC-537/SC-537 covering 1942-1945 exist in RG 24 at NARA but are not digitized publicly. These are the open leads for her 1942-45 operating history - the period for which no narrative was located in any public source.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1942-1945
- Population
- USN crew 1942-45 (log population)
- Limitations
- Archival lead only: photograph credits establish that records exist, not their contents - none document asbestos, maintenance, or materials. NARA catalog (catalog.archives.gov) is JS-rendered and could not be queried directly this session; attribution transcribed via NavSource captions. No asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-sc-537-sc537-06
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[7]Batch-7912 search ledger (this record): NavSource ship page and PC index; NHHC DANFS (no entry); Russell/NHC Project Hula full text; NVR (no entry); NARA catalog (JS-blocked); GAO (403); CourtListener (paced - blocked); secondary web sweeps [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-sc-537-sc537-01 through -08
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or verified litigation naming USS SC-537 / PC-537 / BO-304 was found in the public sources searched. CAVEAT: CourtListener could not be queried this session - the fleet helper reported the hourly request budget spent (paced ~58/hr) on all four base queries; logged as blocked in search_ledger, not as a negative result. Secondary web sweeps surfaced no qualifying case; 'SC-537' collides with small-claims docket-number formats in state courts (a name-collision hazard for any later litigation sweep).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 2026-10-03
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - and the litigation repository search is a genuine open gap (paced, not run to completion). Deck logs (1942-45), Peterson Boat Works build/work records, and Soviet-era service and scrapping records are undigitized leads. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-sc-537-sc537-07