Evidence
7 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-7).
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[1]DANFS, Stephen Potter (DD-538) (builder, dates, specifications, service narrative, striking; verbatim transcription via hazegray.org, read through Wayback capture 2021-04-14 - live NHHC page serves 404 and hazegray is not directly reachable) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- hazegray.org/danfs/destroy/dd538txt.htm (Wayback capture 2021-04-14), specifications block + service narrative
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: laid down 27 October 1942 by the Bethlehem Steel Co., San Francisco, Calif.; launched 28 April 1943 (sponsored by Misses Sally and Marian Potter, nieces of Ensign Potter); commissioned 21 October 1943, Comdr. C. H. Crichton in command; Fletcher class, 2,050 tons, 376'5", 35.2 kt, complement 329. WWII Pacific service 1944-45 as a fast-carrier screen (TF 58/38): Marshall Islands strikes from 29 January 1944; first Truk strike 17-18 February (escorted damaged Intrepid (CV-11) back to the Marshalls); Hollandia strikes 21-22 April; assisted Monterey (CVL-26) and MacDonough (DD-351) in the sinking of Japanese submarine I-174 south of Truk 30 April; Ponape bombardment 1 May; Marcus Island 19-20 May, Wake 23 May; Saipan strikes and the Battle of the Philippine Sea 19-20 June (rescued seven downed pilots); Bonin/Palau/Caroline strikes July; Guam air support with TG 58.4, 31 July-8 August; Philippines strikes 9-25 September; Okinawa 10 October and Formosa 12-14 October strikes; escorted the torpedoed cruisers Canberra (CA-70) and Houston (CL-81) of TU 30.3.1, 13-20 October (took 83 Houston men aboard 16 October); Visayas/Manila/Luzon strikes 11-25 November; Mindoro support December; South China Sea raids January 1945 (Saigon/Camranh Bay 12 January, Formosa 15, Hainan/Hong Kong 16); Tokyo strikes 16-17 February; Iwo Jima 19-22 February; Kyushu/Kobe/Kure strikes 18-19 March (rescued two downed pilots); Okinawa operations April-May 1945 (picked up 107 survivors of kamikaze-hit Bunker Hill (CV-17) on 11 May). Arrived San Francisco 9 July 1945; overhaul at Mare Island Navy Yard until 31 August; out of commission in reserve 21 September 1945, berthed Long Beach. Recommissioned 29 March 1951; Atlantic Fleet, Newport, from 11 July 1951; to the Pacific 1 April 1953; UN fleet off Korea's east coast until cessation of hostilities; extensive repairs/alterations at Boston Naval Shipyard; Guantanamo refresher March 1954; northern-Europe good-will cruise (Belgium, Germany, Norway) January-May 1955; DesRon 23 out of Kobe, Japan, July-November 1956. Out of commission in reserve June 1958, berthed Mare Island; struck from the Navy list 1 December 1972. Ten battle stars for World War II service.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1942-1972
- Population
- Bethlehem San Francisco construction trades 1942-43; wartime and postwar crew (design complement 329)
- Limitations
- DANFS documents service history and specifications, not materials or asbestos content. Mirror transcription cited (via Wayback capture of hazegray) because the live NHHC page returns 404 and hazegray is not directly reachable. The final decommissioning date is given only as 'June 1958' - NavSource reads 13 June 1958 and Wikipedia's infobox reads 21 April 1958; carried as '1958-06' with the conflict in gaps. The DANFS text does not carry the 1973 sale - 'sold late November 1973' comes from the NHHC photo-history page (ev-02) and the day-level date from NavSource.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-stephen-potter-dd538-01
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[2]NHHC Online Library of Selected Images, 'USS Stephen Potter (DD-538), 1943-1973' (photo-history page; ibiblio mirror of the Naval Historical Center site) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- NHHC Online Library photo page for DD-538 (ibiblio mirror), narrative + photo captions NH 102897, NH 102898, 80-G-470275, 80-G-470282
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Official Naval Historical Center photo-history page for this hull: confirms the Fletcher-class build at San Francisco, commissioning October 1943, TF 58 escort service from the Marshall Islands operation of January-February 1944, the I-174 sinking assist 29-30 April 1944 (the page reads 29 April; DANFS records the kill on 30 April - carried in gaps), the Marianas campaign and Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Canberra/Houston tow protection 13-20 October 1944, the January 1945 raids and Okinawa operations, decommissioning September 1945 and reserve lay-up at Long Beach, return to duty late March 1951, Atlantic Fleet service from July 1951, Korea 1953, a northern-Europe cruise in early 1955, a Far Eastern tour 1956, decommissioning June 1958, Pacific Reserve Fleet at Mare Island until stricken 'at the beginning of December 1972,' and sale 'in late November 1973.' Photo holdings include NH 102897 (off Mare Island Navy Yard, circa late 1943) and 80-G-470275/80-G-470282 (Third Fleet en route to the Philippines, circa January 1945).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1943-1973
- Population
- Wartime and postwar crew
- Limitations
- NHHC page documents service history and official photo holdings, not materials or asbestos content. The 29 vs 30 April I-174 date difference with DANFS is documented in gaps. Day-level sale date (27 November 1973) is from NavSource, not this page.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-stephen-potter-dd538-02
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[3]DANFS biographical entry for Ensign Stephen Potter (transcription via NavSource DD-538 page) + NHHC, Naval Aviation in World War I ch. 8 (official NHHC PDF) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource navsource.org/archives/05/538.htm (DANFS bio block); history.navy.mil ww1-08.pdf; Hall of Valor Navy Cross citation text
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Namesake record for this hull: Ensign Stephen Potter, born Saginaw, Mich., 26 December 1896; member of the second Yale University unit to enter naval aviation (April 1917); trained with Volunteer Aerial Coast Patrol Unit No. 2, Buffalo; commissioned ensign 2 November 1917; assigned to the Advanced School at Montchic, Gironde, France, then the British Royal Naval Air Station at Felixstowe, England; credited as the first American naval aviator to shoot down a German seaplane (13 March 1918, per Navy Cross citation); shot down and killed in his plane over the North Sea 25 April 1918; posthumous Navy Cross. NHHC's Naval Aviation in World War I ch. 8 independently records that 'Ens. Stephen Potter shot down one of the attackers and was officially credited as being the first American Naval Aviator to shoot down an enemy seaplane.'
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1917-1918
- Limitations
- Namesake background only - bears on hull identity, not on materials or asbestos. The full DANFS biographical paragraph was not in the hazegray capture used for ev-01; it survives in NavSource's transcription (secondary) and is corroborated in part by the official NHHC WWI aviation history PDF and the Navy Cross citation text (Hall of Valor). Birth date conflicts between 25 and 26 December 1896 across secondary sources - 26 December per the DANFS bio transcription.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-stephen-potter-dd538-03
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[4]DANFS specifications block + Destroyer History Foundation, 'Bethlehem Steel Corporation, San Francisco, CA' builder page (former Union Iron Works/Risdon plant history) + Atlas shipyard dataset record 'bethlehem-shipbuilding' [other_primary]
- Locator
- DANFS spec block; destroyerhistory.org/destroyers/bethsf/; shipyards.json record 'bethlehem-shipbuilding'; NARA RG19 lead
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/yard inference: a WWII Fletcher-class destroyer built at Bethlehem Steel's San Francisco yard (the former Union Iron Works plant, expanded by the adjoining Risdon Iron Works acquisition and used for destroyer construction, per the Destroyer History Foundation) in 1942-43 with a four-boiler/60,000-shp steam plant would have carried period-standard asbestos boiler and steam-line insulation, turbine lagging, gaskets, packing, fireproofing, and deck coverings. The builder's corporate family is documented at yard level in the Atlas dataset ('bethlehem-shipbuilding', tier 3), but that record's evidence concerns Bethlehem's Quincy (Fore River) and Baltimore/Sparrows Point plants - not the San Francisco yard - so yard-level support is attenuated to corporate-family context. NARA RG19 'General Information Books' per-vessel material specifications are an unretrieved archival lead for hull-level specs.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1942-1958
- Population
- Bethlehem San Francisco construction trades 1942-43; crew 1943-45, 1951-58
- Limitations
- Class/era and builder-yard inference only - NOT a hull-specific finding. The Atlas 'bethlehem-shipbuilding' evidence documents the corporation's eastern yards, not the San Francisco plant where this hull was built; no hull-level insulation schedule was located. Does not quantify material or establish any individual's exposure.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-stephen-potter-dd538-04
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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
- 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 - placing DD-538's construction (1942-43), all commissioned U.S. service (1943-1945, 1951-1958), and her reserve periods inside the documented asbestos-use era.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- 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 report text not retrieved (gao.gov blocks automated fetch, HTTP 403) - content via product-page description.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-stephen-potter-dd538-05
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[6]Batch-3513 search ledger (this record): DANFS mirror (hazegray via Wayback); NHHC Online Library photo-history page; NavSource; Destroyer History Foundation builder page; Atlas Fletcher-class profile; GAO HRD-80-2; NARA catalog; CourtListener exact-name and hull-number queries [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-stephen-potter-dd538-01 through sl-uss-stephen-potter-dd538-09
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- No hull-specific asbestos survey, abatement record, materials inventory, hazmat disclosure, or qualifying litigation naming this hull was located in the sources searched (see search_ledger). CourtListener returned zero hits for "USS Stephen Potter" (opinions, type=o; RECAP dockets, type=r) and "DD-538" (opinions); the "DD-538" docket query was attempted but blocked when the fleet pacing budget re-saturated - logged honestly in the ledger. Collision risk is low (DD-538 was the only U.S. Navy ship named Stephen Potter; 'Stephen Potter' is also a litigant/author name), and the zero-hit results make screening moot. The ship was stricken 1972 and scrapped 1973-74 - before modern asbestos documentation practice - and never became a museum, so the museum-disclosure channel that produced ship-specific records for preserved hulls does not exist here.
- 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 - era-standard applications are documented at class/era level (ev-04, ev-05). The CourtListener sweep is near-complete: both exact-name queries and the hull-number opinion query returned zero; only the lowest-value "DD-538" docket query went unrun before the fleet pacing budget was spent - residual litigation risk is minimal but not zero. The hull no longer exists, so present-day ACM status is moot.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-stephen-potter-dd538-06
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[7]NavSource Naval History, Destroyer Photo Index DD-538 (operational/building data, commanding-officer list, disposal date; secondary compilation) + NARA RG24 deck logs / RG19 General Information Books / WWII war diaries (standard archival leads, retrieval not performed) [other_primary]
- Locator
- navsource.org/archives/05/538.htm (via search-result text; direct fetch failed); NARA RG19/RG24 standard leads
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Secondary compilation and unretrieved archival leads: NavSource's DD-538 index corroborates the DANFS build/service dates, supplies the day-level decommissioning date (13 June 1958) and disposal date (sold 27 November 1973, broken up for scrap), and lists commanding officers (Crichton, Pancoast, Muse, Batcheller, Hammer, Eddy, Almgren, Edwards). Hull-level records that could hold material or yard-work documentation - NARA RG19 'General Information Books' (per-vessel material specifications), RG24 deck logs, and the ship's WWII war diaries - were not retrieved; the NARA catalog is JavaScript-gated to automated queries this session.
- Verification
- unverified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Limitations
- NavSource is a secondary compilation - used for corroboration and leads only, not as an evidence-grade source for claims beyond what DANFS/NHHC already establish. None of the archival holdings were retrieved, and none is known to contain asbestos-relevant material.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-stephen-potter-dd538-07