Evidence
8 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-8).
-
[1]research packet jb-packet.md (2 sources cited) [other_primary]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-welles-dd257-pkt-jb-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, Welles I (Destroyer No. 257 / DD-257), verbatim transcription (live NHHC page not located - history.navy.mil URLs for this entry returned HTTP 404 on 2026-09-27; mirror of the hazegray DANFS transcription cited per standing practice) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry, specifications parenthetical + full service narrative (construction; San Diego reserve; 1939-40 Neutrality Patrol; Destroyers for Bases transfer; HMS Cameron narrative; disposal)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: '(Destroyer No. 257: dp. 1,190; l. 314'4"; b. 30'11"; dr. 9'4"; s. 34.33 k.; cpl. 120; a. 4 4", 2 3", 12 21" tt.; cl. Clemson)'. The first Welles was laid down 13 November 1918 at Quincy, Mass., by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Company's Fore River plant; launched 8 May 1919, sponsored by Miss Alma Freeman Welles, granddaughter of Gideon Welles; commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard 2 September 1919, Lt. Comdr. George N. Reeves, Jr. in command. Joined Squadron 2, Destroyer Force, Pacific Fleet at San Diego; classified DD-257 on 17 July 1920; decommissioned at San Diego 15 June 1922 and lay in 'Red Lead Row' into the 1930s. Recommissioned at San Diego 6 November 1939 (Lt. Comdr. Clifton G. Grimes) under the Neutrality Patrol program (one of 77 destroyers/light minelayers recommissioned); alterations and drydocking at Mare Island Navy Yard starting before Christmas 1939 into 1940; departed San Diego 5 February 1940, transited the Panama Canal 16 February, reached Guantanamo Bay 25 February; operated with DesDiv 67 (Welborn C. Wood DD-195, Abel P. Upshur DD-193, Herndon DD-198); Norfolk navy yard 17 March; San Juan-area patrols including operations with Omaha (CL-4); Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, 1 May; Guantanamo operations June; Canal Zone target services with Submarine Division 11 mid-August; arrived Norfolk 28 August 1940. Slated with 49 sisters for transfer under the Destroyers for Bases agreement (50 'overage' destroyers for 99-year base-site leases). Loaded service ammunition at Norfolk; exchanged torpedoes at Newport 1 September; drydocked at the Boston Navy Yard; sailed 5 September 1940 with Russell (DD-414) and Herndon for Halifax, Nova Scotia, arriving 6 September as one of the first eight ships transferred; embarked six British officers and 120 enlisted men for familiarization; decommissioned and turned over to the Royal Navy 9 September 1940; name struck from the U.S. Navy list 8 January 1941. Simultaneously renamed HMS Cameron (I.05), Lt. Comdr. P. G. Merriman, RN; faulty generator delayed sailing; made Plymouth 13 November after Belfast; shifted to Portsmouth three days later for first major overhaul; on 5 December 1940 Luftwaffe bombers struck Portsmouth and a high-explosive bomb capsized her in drydock No. 8; refloated 23 February 1941, deemed unsuitable for sea service and allocated as a hulk; studied by U.S. Navy damage-control experts (per John Alden, 'Flush Decks and Four Pipes,' the most extreme hull damage seen by Americans until Cassin DD-372 and Downes DD-375 at Pearl Harbor); Admiralty Committee on Shock in Ships shock tests on the hulk July 1942-September 1943; paid off 5 October 1943; remained in dockyard hands at Portsmouth until towed to Falmouth November 1944 and broken up for scrap.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1918-1944
- Population
- Bethlehem/Fore River construction trades, Quincy, 1918-19; USN crew 1919-1922 and 1939-1940 (design complement 120); RN crew 1940 (6 officers + ~120 ratings at transfer)
- Limitations
- DANFS documents identity, dates, specifications, and the service narrative only - it contains no asbestos or materials information and does not establish asbestos presence, quantity, location, or any individual's exposure aboard this hull. The live NHHC DANFS page for this hull was not located (history.navy.mil URL patterns for 'welles' returned HTTP 404 on 2026-09-27); the verbatim transcription at the losthistory.net mirror of hazegray.org's DANFS Online is cited instead, consistent with BATCH-01 mirror practice.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-welles-dd257-01
-
[3]UK National Archives (Kew), catalogue record ADM 358/3122 - 'HMS Cameron: 5 December 1940; damaged by enemy action, air attack on Portsmouth' (1940-1941; open document; record opened 28 June 2013) [other_primary]
- Locator
- discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C13444154 - reference ADM 358/3122, covering date 1940-1941, held by The National Archives, Kew
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- The UK National Archives catalogues a ship-specific Admiralty record for this hull's terminal event: ADM 358/3122, 'HMS Cameron: 5 December 1940; damaged by enemy action, air attack on Portsmouth' - the official damage documentation for the bombing that capsized the ship in Portsmouth drydock No. 8. The catalogue entry confirms a dedicated ship-level record exists covering 1940-1941; the document itself was not retrieved.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1940-1941 (record coverage)
- Limitations
- Verified record-existence finding from TNA's own catalogue - confirms a dedicated damage report exists for this hull, but the document was not retrieved or reviewed. ADM 358 series damage reports concern battle damage assessment, not materials inventories; whether it describes insulation or other materials that could bear on asbestos is unknown. Establishes nothing about materials aboard this hull; archival lead only.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-welles-dd257-02
-
[4]NARA, Special List #44 - 'List of Logbooks of US Navy Ships, Stations, and Miscellaneous Units, 1801-1947' (named-vessels list), plus NARA 'Logbooks of the US Navy at the National Archives' descriptive page (Record Group 24, Entry 118, National Archives Identifier 581208) [other_primary]
- Locator
- archives.gov/research/military/logbooks/special-list-44-named.html, 'Welles' table rows (DD-257 x2; DD-628); archives.gov/research/military/logbooks/navy/ (RG 24 Entry 118, NAID 581208; pre-1941 logs at NARA Washington DC)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- NARA's Special List #44 explicitly lists deck logs for this hull: 'Welles (DD-257) 9/2/1919-6/15/1922' and 'Welles (DD-257) 11/6/1939-9/9/1940' - two logbook spans matching exactly this ship's first commission (commissioned 2 September 1919 to decommissioned 15 June 1922) and second USN commission (recommissioned 6 November 1939 to transferred 9 September 1940). The same list separately shows 'Welles (DD-628) 8/16/1943-6/30/1945,' the second, Gleaves-class hull of the name. NARA's descriptive page locates US Navy logbooks through 1940 at the National Archives in Washington, DC (RG 24, Entry 118, NAID 581208).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1919-1922, 1939-1940 (listed logbook spans)
- Limitations
- Verified record-existence finding from NARA's own published ship-level inventory - it confirms logbook volumes for this hull are cataloged, but the volumes themselves were not retrieved or reviewed and their contents (daily operations, not materials inventories) would not in any case be expected to itemize asbestos. Establishes nothing about materials aboard this hull; archival lead only. RN-era (1940-44) records for HMS Cameron are not NARA holdings - they would be at the UK National Archives (see ev-02 for the catalogued damage record).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-welles-dd257-03
-
[5]DANFS specifications block for this hull ('dp. 1,190'; 's. 34.33 k.'; 'cl. Clemson') + class machinery record (4 boilers - Normand/Yarrow/White-Forster; geared turbines - Parsons/Curtis/Westinghouse; ~27,000 shp, per class-level references) + Atlas shipyard dataset, Fore River Shipyard yard-level record (tier 3) [other_primary]
- Locator
- DANFS specifications parenthetical; shipyards.json record 'fore-river-shipyard' (asbestos_products_documented field; ev-fore-river-01 litigation row)
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/class inference only: Welles was a Clemson-class 'flush-deck'/four-stack steam-turbine destroyer built 1918-19 at Bethlehem Shipbuilding's Fore River plant, Quincy - a WWI-era steam warship of a type whose class carried period-standard boiler and steam-line insulation, lagging, gaskets, packing, and fireproofing materials common to naval steam propulsion of the era. Builder yard resolves in the Atlas shipyards dataset as 'fore-river-shipyard' (Quincy, MA; tier 3): yard-level records document boilers, pipes, turbines, fireproofing materials, gaskets, packing, electrical components, asbestos wire insulation, asbestos cement, and asbestos-containing paint at the yard - a yard-level record, not a hull-level finding.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1918-1919
- Population
- Bethlehem/Fore River construction trades, Quincy, 1918-19 (era context only)
- Limitations
- Class/era and builder-yard inference only - no ship-specific finding is established by this row. This is not evidence that asbestos-containing material was installed, present, or handled aboard this specific hull; it does not identify products, quantities, or locations aboard USS Welles/HMS Cameron. No ship-specific asbestos documentation exists for this hull (see ev-06, negative finding); the hull was scrapped in 1944-45 and no surviving structure exists to survey. Hull-specific boiler/turbine makers unverified (class builders used varying makers; DANFS does not specify for this hull).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-welles-dd257-04
-
[6]U.S. General Accounting Office, HRD-80-2, 'Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure' (Oct. 18, 1979) [gao]
- Locator
- GAO product page abstract, gao.gov/products/hrd-80-2
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- GAO reports Navy-wide that thermal insulation was the Navy's major use of asbestos aboard ships fleet-wide, and describes the Navy's 1975 policy (remove/replace only damaged or repair-necessitated insulation) and its 1979 revision (selective replacement in high-maintenance areas). This is institutional Navy-wide practice, not a finding about this hull or the Clemson class specifically.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1979 (report); Navy-wide practice described spans earlier decades
- Population
- Navy shipyard workers, Long Beach and Norfolk Naval Shipyards, 1970s (report population; not this hull's population)
- Limitations
- gao.gov returns HTTP 403 to automated fetch; the finding is drawn from the GAO product-page abstract/description, not the full PDF text (standing defect documented since BATCH-01). The report's fieldwork focus is Long Beach and Norfolk Naval Shipyards in the 1970s - decades after this hull left U.S. service (1940) and was scrapped (1944) - and it does not name USS Welles, HMS Cameron, the Clemson class, or Fore River. Provided as Navy-wide institutional context only; establishes nothing about materials aboard this hull.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-welles-dd257-05
-
[7]CourtListener API v4 sweep (authenticated, via fleet helper cl-auth-search.py): exact phrase "USS Welles" (type=o) completed 2026-09-27 - 0 results; "DD-257" (type=o) completed 2026-09-27 - 0 results; companion queries ("USS Welles" type=r; "HMS Cameron") not completed under fleet pacing - see limitations [court_record]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-welles-dd257-06 through -08
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- CourtListener opinion-index sweep found no litigation naming this hull: exact-phrase "USS Welles" returned zero opinion results and "DD-257" returned zero opinion results (authenticated API v4, 2026-09-27). No qualifying or non-qualifying litigation naming this hull was located in the completed portion of the sweep.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 2026-09-27
- Limitations
- PARTIAL SWEEP - the negative finding covers the opinion index for the exact name and hull number. The 'USS Welles' docket (type=r) query and 'HMS Cameron' queries returned the fleet-wide pacing stand-down on spaced retries and are carried as open items in the search ledger, not as negative results. Even a completed sweep would not prove no litigation naming this hull exists - PACER-gated dockets, sealed filings, and state-court records outside CourtListener's index are not searched; this hull's U.S. service (1919-1940) and 1944 scrapping predate the digitized-litigation era entirely. High name-collision risk: 'Welles' names a second U.S. Navy hull (DD-628, Gleaves-class, 1943-1968) whose service window covers the peak asbestos-litigation exposure era, plus a common surname; 'HMS Cameron' collides with a common name and the Clan Cameron. Any future hit requires explicit hull attribution to DD-257 before attaching to this record.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-welles-dd257-06
-
[8]naval-history.net, 'U-boat Happy Time, December 1940' (Don Kindell transcription of Admiralty wartime records) + uboat.net Allied Warships entry, HMS Cameron (I 05) [other_primary]
- Locator
- naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4012-25DEC01.htm (December 1940, 'Destroyer CAMERON'); uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4325.html (HMS Cameron I 05)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Secondary references corroborate the RN-period record: uboat.net's Allied Warships entry for HMS Cameron (I 05) repeats the DANFS narrative (transfer 9 September 1940; Portsmouth refit; bombed and capsized in drydock No. 8 on 5 December 1940; refloated 23 February 1941; shock tests July 1942-September 1943; paid off 5 October 1943; broken up at Falmouth from November 1944). naval-history.net's December 1940 chronology adds a detail DANFS omits: 'Fourteen ratings were killed in the destroyer,' and describes Cameron as 'repaired in fifteen and a half months, completing April 1942, and... used for hull stress testing.'
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-27
- Study period
- 1940-1944
- Population
- RN ratings aboard HMS Cameron, December 1940 (14 killed per naval-history.net)
- Limitations
- Secondary/reference sources only - corroborating context for the DANFS narrative, not independent authority. naval-history.net's 'repaired in fifteen and a half months' phrasing differs in emphasis from DANFS's 'deemed unsuitable for return to active sea service... allocated for use as a hulk' - consistent with a hulk refitted for test purposes, not returned to service; carried as context, the 14-death casualty figure rests on the naval-history.net transcription. Establishes nothing about materials aboard this hull.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-welles-dd257-07