Evidence
10 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-10).
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[1]research packet 860-packet.md [other_primary]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-worthington-pc1137-pkt-860-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, Worthington (PC-1137) - namesake, spec block, construction, WWII service narrative, reserve, naming, striking (verbatim transcription of DANFS Vol. VIII p. 476; live NHHC page returned 404 on 2026-10-03) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS Vol. VIII p. 476, full Worthington entry (spec block + four service paragraphs + closing line)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Documented for this hull: laid down 29 December 1942 at Bay City, Mich., by the Defoe Shipbuilding Co.; launched 29 March 1943; towed down the Mississippi River to New Orleans for outfitting and acceptance trials; commissioned there 23 October 1943, Lt. George D. Lewis, USNR, in command. Spec block: 'PC--1137: dp. 280; l. 173'8"; b. 23'0"; dr. 10'10"; s. 20.2 k. (tl.); cpl. 65; a. 1 3", 1 40mm., 5 20mm., 2 dct., 2 K-guns, 2 dcp. (mousetrap); cl. PC--461'. Service: shakedown out of the Submarine Chaser Training Center, Miami, Fla.; departed for the southwest Pacific late November; Panama Canal transit 5-6 December [1943]; arrived Guadalcanal 18 February 1944; TG 35.6 convoy escort and antisubmarine patrols across the Solomons to 26 July 1944; screen for LST Flotilla 13 to the Palaus; forward control and reference ship for the Orange Beach 3 landings during the Peleliu assault 14-16 September 1944; screened the operational area against submarine attack to 15 November; TG 96.3 at Eniwetok, convoy escort on the Eniwetok-Ulithi-Guam-Saipan circuit 23 November 1944 - 3 March 1945; arrived Pearl Harbor 13 March 1945 for a seven-week repair period during which she was converted to a combat communications control ship (completed first week of May; amphibious training at Maui); sailed with LST Flotilla 35 on 21 May; arrived Saipan 10 June; convoy runs between the Marianas and Okinawa plus ASW patrols out of Apra Harbor, Guam, for the rest of the war; reclassified a combat communications control ship PCC-1137 on 20 August 1945; repair period late August-early September; departed Guam 20 September for occupation duty, arrived Tokyo Bay 25 September, joined TG 53.4; Japanese waters to early 1946; Central Pacific service at Truk, Eniwetok, and Guam; returned via a six-day Pearl Harbor stopover to Astoria, Oreg., arriving 27 May [1946]; decommissioned 10 August 1946; Columbia River Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet, for the remaining '12 years and six months of her Navy career'; named Worthington 15 February 1956; 'On 29 May 1959, her name was struck from the Navy list; and, presumably, she was sold for scrapping.' Earned one battle star for World War II (the entry misprints the hull number as 'PC--1187' on that line).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1942-1959 (entry coverage)
- Population
- Defoe construction trades (1942-43); commissioning and wartime crew (1943-46)
- Limitations
- Ship-specific history only; no asbestos or material content. Live NHHC DANFS page returned 404 on 2026-10-03 under three URL patterns (worthington.html, worthington-pc-1137.html, legacy danfs/w8/worthington.htm); verbatim transcription at losthistory.net (a hazegray mirror) verified live, and a 2024 Wayback capture of hazegray.org confirms identical text. The entry's closing 'presumably, she was sold for scrapping' is presumptive and is contradicted by NavSource's documented post-Navy resale as freight barge Widgeon (see ev-08); the struck date conflicts with NavSource/uboat.net's 29 March 1959 (see gaps); the battle-star line's 'PC--1187' is a misprint of this hull's number (see gaps).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-worthington-pc1137-01
-
[3]NavSource Online: Submarine Chaser Photo Archive, Worthington (PCC-1137) ex-PC-1137 - milestone timeline, CO table, specifications, NVR note, post-Navy merchant chain [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 12/011137.htm header block, specifications block, and commanding-officers table
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource timeline for this hull: laid down 29 December 1942 at Defoe Shipbuilding Co., Bay City, Michigan; launched 29 March 1943; commissioned USS PC-1137, 23 October 1943 at New Orleans, LA; reclassified as a Control Submarine Chaser, PCC-1137, 20 August 1945; decommissioned 10 August 1946 at Astoria, Oregon and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Columbia River Group; 'Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists plan for decommissioning and placing in reserve as January 1947'; named Worthington 15 February 1956; struck from the Naval Register 29 March 1959; acquired in 1963 by Ace J. Wester of Marysville, WA for use as a freight barge and renamed Widgeon; acquired in 1977 by Richard B. Perry of Gig Harbor, WA; out of documentation in 1984; fate unknown. Specifications: displacement 295 t. (lt) / 450 t. (fl); length 173'8"; beam 23'; draft 10'10"; speed 20.2 kts.; complement 65; armament one 3"/50 dual-purpose mount, one 40mm, three 20mm, two rocket launchers, four depth charge projectors, two depth charge tracks; propulsion two 1,440 bhp General Motors 16-258S diesel engines (serial nos. 10891 & 10892), Farrel-Birmingham single reduction gear, two shafts. Commanding officers table: PCO LT Stuart M. Strauss, USNR (December 1942); LT George D. Lewis, USNR (24 October 1943); LT T. M. Hayes, USNR (1945). Call sign November-Golf-Tango-Quebec. Page headers the class as 'PC-451 Class Submarine Chaser'.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1942-1984
- Population
- Defoe construction trades (1942-43); crew (1943-46); post-Navy barge crews/owners (1963-84)
- Limitations
- NavSource is a volunteer secondary compilation, not a primary registry - milestone dates generally track DANFS/NVR but the struck date conflicts with DANFS (29 March vs 29 May 1959 - see gaps); displacement (295/450 t vs DANFS 280) and armament counts (three 20mm + two rocket launchers vs DANFS five 20mm) differ from the DANFS spec block; the CO table conflicts with uboat.net's command listing (Strauss as PCO December 1942 vs in command 17 November 1943-mid-1944; 'T. M. Hayes' vs 'Thomas M. Mayes, Jr.' - see gaps). Contains no asbestos content. The 1949-NVR plan note postdates her actual 1946 decommissioning - carried as NavSource's transcription of the register's plan column.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-worthington-pc1137-02
-
[4]Shipbuilding History (Tim Colton), Defoe Shipbuilding, Bay City MI - yard production table row for hull 222 [other_primary]
- Locator
- shipbuildinghistory.com Defoe table, row '222'
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- The Defoe production table records this hull as yard hull no. 222: 'PC 1137', owner US Navy, type Sub Chaser, '463d' build figure, 173 ft, delivered 23-Oct-43; disposition note 'Later PCC 1137, named Worthington 1956, scrapped 1959'. Page context: Defoe Boat & Motor Works started 1905, renamed Defoe Shipbuilding Company at the beginning of WWII; the shipyard closed in 1976. PC-1137 sits within the yard's PC run (PC-1130 through PC-1248 and others tabled).
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1942-1943
- Population
- Defoe construction trades (1942-43)
- Limitations
- Reputable secondary compilation of builder records, not a primary registry - delivery date as tabled equals the commission date; the 'scrapped 1959' disposition repeats the DANFS presumption contradicted by NavSource's documented barge resale (see ev-08). No asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-worthington-pc1137-03
-
[5]National Museum of the Great Lakes, 'Fighting Ships from Bay City - July 1945' (reproduction of the Inland Seas article by Bert C. Brennan) [museum_official]
- Locator
- nmgl.org 'Fighting Ships from Bay City - July 1945' (Inland Seas reproduction), paragraphs 1-3 and delivery-voyage paragraphs
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Contemporaneous (July 1945) trade-press account of this hull's builder, reproduced by the museum: 'During the last five years, nearly 135 fighting boats have been spawned here with the help of some 4,000 employees and sent to saltwater duty' - including 'fifty-four 173-foot patrol craft (PC) or submarine chasers' - 'made Defoe one of the largest producers of Navy ships on the Great Lakes.' The 'roll-over' construction method was 'first used in August, 1941, on a 173-foot PC.' PCs were sailed by a freshwater civilian crew from Bay City via Lake Huron, the Straits of Mackinac, Lake Michigan, and the Chicago drainage canal into the Illinois and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans 'some 2,100 miles away,' where 'the ship is refitted, handed over to the Navy and commissioned' - matching DANFS's 'towed down the Mississippi River to New Orleans for outfitting and acceptance trials.'
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1940-1945
- Population
- ~4,000 Defoe employees (1940-45); civilian delivery crews
- Limitations
- Yard/era-level documentation: PC-1137 is not named (a PC-1119 voyage incident is recounted). No asbestos or material content. 1945 trade journalism reproduced by a museum - production figures carried as published; the 'nearly 135' count covers all Defoe naval types, not PCs alone.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-worthington-pc1137-04
-
[6]NavSource Submarine Chaser Photo Index - PC-461 class construction context; era inference built on DANFS spec block, NavSource specifications, and GAO HRD-80-2 (see ev-06) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 12/01idx.htm 'Submarine Chaser 173' Steel Hull' class essay; DANFS spec block; NavSource 12/011137 specifications
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- A steel-hulled PC-461-class submarine chaser built 1942-43 sits inside the Navy's documented asbestos-use era; era-standard applications aboard a diesel patrol craft of this type and period were thermal insulation, machinery and engine-exhaust lagging, gaskets, valve packing, and electrical insulation in a 173-foot hull's confined machinery spaces. Class context: 362 World War II-built 173-foot PCs were 'steel hulled, twin diesel propelled'; PC-1137 is one of the 189 units in the PC-1077 to PC-1265 series. Some PCs 'were converted to Amphibious Control Vessels and reclassified PCC' - this hull's documented 1945 path. Twin-diesel propulsion - no steam plant, so the boiler/turbine lagging pathway of steam vessels does not apply; the asbestos burden of a craft this size was materially smaller than that of steam combatants.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1942-1984
- Population
- Defoe construction trades (1942-43); crew (1943-46); Pearl Harbor repair/conversion trades (March-May 1945); post-Navy barge conversion trades (1963+)
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - no hull-specific insulation survey, material list, or work package located for PC-1137. Names era-standard applications, not confirmed installed materials. No quantity. Product names are normalized era terms; no manufacturer attribution for this hull.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-worthington-pc1137-05
-
[7]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 construction (1942-43), service era (1943-46), and entire reserve period (1946-59).
- 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-worthington-pc1137-06
-
[8]Batch-7651 search ledger (this record): DANFS transcription; NavSource vessel page and class index; NVR ship detail; Shipbuilding History Defoe table; NMGL Inland Seas reproduction; uboat.net allied-warships entry; NARA catalog query; GAO product page; CourtListener (blocked); secondary web litigation sweep [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-worthington-pc1137-01 through -12
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, or verified litigation naming PC-1137 / PCC-1137 / USS Worthington was found in the public sources searched. CAVEAT: CourtListener could not be queried this session - the authenticated API returned daily-quota-exhausted with a ~3.7 h server-directed stand-down (multi-hour wait = daily budget spent per fleet rules); logged as blocked in search_ledger, not as a negative result. Secondary web sweeps surfaced no qualifying case; the only 'asbestos aboard' material is law-firm marketing content - mesothelioma.net's patrol-boat listicle explicitly lists 'USS PC-1137' among hulls asserted to contain asbestos without primary sourcing - excluded by source policy.
- 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 (quota-blocked, not run). NARA deck logs, Defoe work packages, and USCG/MARAD merchant-documentation files for the Widgeon era are undigitized leads. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-worthington-pc1137-07
-
[9]Disposal correction: NavSource documented post-Navy chain vs DANFS 'presumably... sold for scrapping' (losthistory.net/hazegray transcription) and Shipbuilding History 'scrapped 1959' [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 12/011137.htm timeline bullets 1963/1977/1984 vs DANFS closing line and shipbuildinghistory.com Defoe row 222
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- CORRECTION: DANFS closes the entry 'On 29 May 1959, her name was struck from the Navy list; and, presumably, she was sold for scrapping,' and Shipbuilding History's Defoe table repeats 'scrapped 1959.' NavSource documents the actual disposition instead: acquired in 1963 by Ace J. Wester of Marysville, WA for use as a freight barge and renamed Widgeon; acquired in 1977 by Richard B. Perry of Gig Harbor, WA; out of documentation in 1984; fate unknown. The hull therefore survived Navy disposal by roughly a quarter-century in merchant barge service on Puget Sound - she was not scrapped in 1959.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- correction
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1959-1984
- Population
- Post-Navy owners, barge crews, and any conversion trades (1963-84)
- Limitations
- The barge-era chain rests on NavSource's compilation alone; no USCG documentation file or MARAD record was fetched to confirm it, and 'fate unknown' stands as documented. Material consequence: if the barge conversion or later owners removed original WWII-era insulation, no record of it was located - hull material state post-1984 is undocumented. No asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-worthington-pc1137-08
-
[10]NARA RG 24 deck logs for USS PC-1137 / PCC-1137 (October 1943 - August 1946) - archival lead; catalog query returned no fetchable digitized result this session [other_primary]
- Locator
- catalog.archives.gov query 'PC-1137' (no digitized result); RG 24 deck-log series, NARA College Park
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Deck logs for this hull's commissioned period (1943-46) exist in NARA's Record Group 24 deck-log series under standard Navy practice but are not publicly digitized; a catalog.archives.gov query for 'PC-1137' returned no fetchable result this session (JS-rendered interface). Original 1944-era logbooks for this hull are also documented to survive in private hands - noted as an existence signal only, not cited (see batch report).
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-03
- Study period
- 1943-1946 (log coverage)
- Limitations
- Archival lead only: log contents unexamined; deck logs are the primary source for availabilities, drills, and any material events aboard, and for confirming or defeating the secondary-source CO-table conflicts (see gaps). No asbestos content.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-worthington-pc1137-09