Evidence
9 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-9).
-
[1]research packet gn-packet.md (4 sources cited) [nhhc_danfs]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED (identity confirmed as a never-completed Gearing hull)
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-seymour-d-owens-dd767-pkt-gn-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, Seymour D. Owens (DD-767) - verbatim transcription via hazegray DANFS mirror, Wayback capture 2021-04-15 (live NHHC page 404s) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS DD-767 entry, characteristics block + full entry text
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: laid down 3 April 1944 by Bethlehem Steel Co., San Francisco, Calif.; name Seymour D. Owens assigned 8 January 1945; incomplete at war's end, further construction cancelled 7 January 1946; incomplete ship delivered to the Navy 28 February 1947; portions of the hull used to repair Ernest G. Small (DD-838); remainder berthed with the Pacific Reserve Fleet; sold for scrapping to National Metal and Steel Co. on 23 March 1959; name struck from the Navy list 9 June 1958. Design block: Gearing class, 2,425 tons, 390'6" x 40'10" x 18'6", 35 kt, complement 336.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1944-1959
- Population
- Bethlehem Steel San Francisco construction trades 1944-1946; no crew ever embarked
- Limitations
- DANFS documents identity, chronology, and disposition, not materials or asbestos content. It does not state percentage complete at cancellation, whether machinery or insulation was installed, or launch date. Live NHHC page returns 404; mirror transcription cited.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-seymour-d-owens-dd767-01
-
[3]DANFS, Ernest G. Small (DD-838) - verbatim transcription via HyperWar/ibiblio [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS DD-838 service narrative, 1951-1952 repair paragraph
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS for Ernest G. Small (DD-838) documents the hull's principal utilization event: Small struck a mine off Hungnam 7 October 1951 (9 killed, 18 wounded); heavy seas broke the bow off four days later; she reached Long Beach 18 December 1951, decommissioned 15 January 1952, and 'the bow of the unfinished Seymour D. Owens (DD-767) was grafted to her hull' during the repair and radar-picket conversion; she recommissioned as DDR-838 on 2 December 1952.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1951-1952
- Population
- Long Beach Naval Shipyard trades on the DD-767/DD-838 bow-graft job, 1951-1952
- Limitations
- Documents that the incomplete hull was sectioned and its bow welded to another destroyer at Long Beach Naval Shipyard in 1952 - a ship-specific industrial event involving cutting and hot work on a 1944-built hull. Does not state what materials (including any insulation) were present in the sectioned bow, does not name the trades involved, and is not an asbestos finding.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-seymour-d-owens-dd767-02
-
[4]NavSource Destroyer Photo Index, USS Seymour D. Owens (DD-767) page - official USN photos USN15450, USN15705, USN15706, USN15707 [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource DD-767 photo index, image caption block
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Official U.S. Navy photographs indexed at NavSource document the cannibalization sequence: USN15450 shows the hulk entering Long Beach Naval Shipyard under tow from Suisun Bay on 13 December 1951; USN15705 shows 'Seymour D. Owens (DD-767) bow being removed January 22 1952'; USN15706 and USN15707 show the new bow being placed on Ernest G. Small (DD-838) the same day.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1951-1952
- Population
- Long Beach Naval Shipyard workers, December 1951 - January 1952
- Limitations
- Photographs are official USN images; the dates and descriptions are contributor-supplied NavSource captions, not independently retrieved NHHC/NARA catalog records. The 22 January 1952 bow-removal/graft dates are consistent with the DANFS DD-838 repair chronology (decommissioned 15 January 1952). Establishes the industrial event, not materials or asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-seymour-d-owens-dd767-03
-
[5]NavSource DD-767 narrative vs. DANFS DD-838 chronology and NavSource captions USN15450/USN15705; Parks-Lansdale graft per USS Floyd B. Parks Association history and USNI Naval History 'Collision at Sea' (Dec 2005) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource DD-767 'Operational and Building Data' paragraph; NavSource photo captions; ussfloydbparks.org final history; usni.org Naval History 2005
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- CORRECTION: NavSource's narrative text states 'In May 1956 Seymour D. Owens was towed to Long Beach and Sections of her hull were removed and used to repair DD-838 Ernest G. Small.' This is contradicted by (a) DANFS for DD-838, which places the bow graft within Small's 15 January - 2 December 1952 repair period, and (b) NavSource's own photo captions on the same page dating the hulk's arrival at Long Beach to 13 December 1951 and the bow removal to 22 January 1952. The 1956 date belongs to a different event: USS Floyd B. Parks (DD-884) collided with USS Columbus (CA-74) on 11 March 1956, lost a bow section, and was repaired at Long Beach Naval Shipyard using the bow of the uncompleted sister hulk Lansdale (DD-766).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- correction
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1951-1952 vs 1956
- Population
- n/a - chronological correction
- Limitations
- The correction pins the Owens bow graft to January 1952, not 1956; it is a date/attribution correction only. Neither the NavSource narrative nor the photo captions address asbestos content or worker exposure.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-seymour-d-owens-dd767-04
-
[6]DANFS DD-767 characteristics block; Gearing-class profile (class-f gearing-class.class.json) design summary; NavSource building data [other_primary]
- Locator
- DANFS specs block; class profile class_notes
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/design inference only: DD-767 is a Gearing-class hull (a 14-foot hull-plug lengthening of the Allen M. Sumner design) laid down at Bethlehem Steel, San Francisco, in April 1944 with a designed high-pressure superheated steam plant (4 B&W boilers, GE geared turbines, 60,000 shp). A completed destroyer of this design and era would have carried period-standard asbestos boiler/turbine insulation, steam-line lagging, gaskets, packing, and fireproofing; class-level litigation recitals (e.g., the Goodrich omnibus opinion reciting Sumner/Gearing forced-draft-blower insulation drawings) describe that class context. But DD-767's construction was cancelled 7 January 1946 and the hulk was never outfitted to completion, so whether insulation-installation stages were reached aboard this hull is undocumented. No class evidence is treated as a ship finding.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1944-1946
- Population
- Bethlehem Steel San Francisco construction trades 1944-1946 (if outfitting trades were engaged)
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only, expressly limited by this hull's incomplete status: installation of asbestos materials depends on outfitting stage, which is undocumented. Class litigation recitals are unadjudicated and describe completed machinery spaces; they cannot establish materials aboard a hull that never completed construction. No ship-specific installation is claimed.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-seymour-d-owens-dd767-05
-
[7]Atlas shipyards.json records 'bethlehem-shipbuilding' and 'long-beach-naval-shipyard'; PMID 294186 (Long Beach x-ray survey); PMID 4003623 (Kilburn take-home study) [other_primary]
- Locator
- shipyards.json yard records; PubMed citations within the yard dataset
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Yard-level context for the two documented work events: (a) the hull's 1944-46 construction yard, Bethlehem Steel San Francisco (the former Union Iron Works plant), is covered in the Atlas yard dataset under the corporate 'bethlehem-shipbuilding' record, which documents asbestos products at Bethlehem yards generally (85% magnesia block, Marinite, Transite, Unibestos, lagging, gaskets, packing) but whose exposure findings derive chiefly from Baltimore/Quincy operations rather than the San Francisco yard; (b) the 1951-52 bow removal/graft was performed at Long Beach Naval Shipyard, whose yard-level record includes a 1979 chest x-ray survey of 6,640 employees finding 16.0% with asbestos-related radiographic abnormalities (PMID 294186) and a take-home exposure study of LA County shipyard families (PMID 4003623).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- context_only
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1944-1959
- Population
- Bethlehem SF construction trades (1944-46); Long Beach Naval Shipyard trades (1951-52); National Metal & Steel scrappers (1959, unexamined)
- Limitations
- Yard-level asbestos documentation describes the workplaces where the hulk was built and sectioned; it does not establish asbestos aboard DD-767, does not document what materials the 1952 cutting crews disturbed, and does not identify any individual exposure. No hull finding follows.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-seymour-d-owens-dd767-06
-
[8]Batch-3742 source review and search ledger in this record [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-seymour-d-owens-dd767-01 through -10
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No ship-specific asbestos documentation was located in the authoritative sources searched: no DD-767 asbestos survey, abatement contract, engineering material inventory, or product identification was found, and the hull's never-completed, never-commissioned status means no crew-exposure or in-service-disturbance record exists. This is a bounded negative finding, not proof that ACM was absent from the partial structure.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 2026-09-27 review
- Limitations
- The search did not include unretrieved NARA engineering files (RG 19 hull correspondence, general information books, S39/S48 drawings) or physical inspection. Whether the cancelled hull ever received asbestos insulation remains open - a gap, not a finding. Class/era inference cannot be upgraded to a hull-specific claim.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-seymour-d-owens-dd767-07
-
[9]CourtListener API v4 search: type=o "Seymour D. Owens" count 0; type=r "Seymour D. Owens" count 0; type=o "DD-767" count 0; type=r "DD-767" count 2 (both non-qualifying collisions) [court_record]
- Locator
- CL search API results; dockets /docket/4253578/fojas-v-ackerman/ and /docket/4232822/nunez-v-geico-general-insurance-company/
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- Completed CourtListener sweep via authenticated helper cl-auth-search.py, 2026-09-27: exact-name queries "Seymour D. Owens" returned 0 opinions and 0 dockets; hull-number queries "DD-767" returned 0 opinions and 2 dockets, both name collisions - Fojas v. Ackerman, 1:08-cv-00423 (N.D. Ill., stockholders suit) and Nunez v. Geico General Insurance Co., 1:09-cv-23624 (S.D. Fla., insurance-contract removal), neither asbestos nor vessel-related. No qualifying asbestos litigation naming this hull was located.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 2026-09-27
- Population
- Not established
- Limitations
- Complete four-query sweep (exact name + hull number, opinions + dockets): zero qualifying results; the only hits were hull-number collisions in non-asbestos dockets. This is a bounded negative - CourtListener coverage does not include every state filing, and a never-commissioned hull has essentially no crew-litigation surface; yard-worker suits would name the construction yard, not the vessel.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-seymour-d-owens-dd767-08