Evidence
10 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-10).
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[1]research packet 1072-packet.md (1 sources cited) [other_primary]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-yms-48-yms48-pkt-1072-packet-md
-
[2]NavSource Online, Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive - YMS-48 (contributed archive; milestone list, spec block, embedded NHHC combat-art caption for accession 88-199-GK) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource 11/19048 (live fetch 2026-10-05, navsource.net) - milestone list, specifications block, NHHC photo caption 88-199-GK
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- NavSource record for this hull: YMS-1 Class Auxiliary Motor Minesweeper; laid down 27 June 1941 by 'Wheeler Ship Building Corp., Brooklyn, NY'; launched 15 May 1942; completed 14 July 1942; 'Sunk 14 February 1945 by USS Fletcher (DD 445) after being damaged by coastal defense guns at Corregidor, Philippines'; struck from the Navy list 23 February 1945; call sign Nan-Easy-Jig-How (NEJH). Specifications: 320 t.; 136' x 24'6" x 6'1"; 13 kts.; complement 33; one 3"/50 dual-purpose mount, two 20mm mounts, two depth-charge tracks, two depth-charge projectors; propulsion two 880-bhp General Motors 8-268A diesel engines, Snow and Knobstedt single reduction gear, two shafts. Embedded NHHC caption (Dwight C. Shepler watercolor, 1945, accession 88-199-GK): 'YMS-8 and YMS-48 cleaning a pathway through the mines off Bataan peninsula... enemy shore guns sank the motor minesweeper YMS-48 and damaged the destroyers Fletcher [DD-445] and Hopewell [DD-681].' Page states explicitly: 'There is no DANFS History currently available for YMS-48.'
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-05
- Study period
- 1941-1945
- Population
- Construction trades (Wheeler Shipbuilding, Whitestone, 1941-42); crew 1942-1945 (NavSource complement 33)
- Limitations
- Volunteer-maintained archival compilation, not an official source - but the embedded caption is an NHHC photo-catalog artifact, and the loss account is corroborated by the official U.S. Naval Chronology and the Fletcher action report (ev-02, ev-03). Builder location 'Brooklyn, NY' conflicts with shipbuildinghistory/uboat.net 'Whitestone, Long Island, NY' (the Wheeler minesweeper yard); discrepancy carried. Contains no asbestos information; supports no asbestos claim. The diesel twin-screw plant detail is asbestos-relevant only as context - no boilers or steam system aboard.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-yms-48-yms48-01
-
[3]U.S. Naval Chronology, World War II (Navy Department / Naval History Division, 1955), February 1945 entry - verbatim text via ibiblio HyperWar mirror; identical text hosted at navsource.net/Naval/1945.htm [other_primary]
- Locator
- U.S. Naval Chronology WWII, February 1945, 02/14 Wed entry
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Official Navy chronology entry for 14 February 1945: 'United States naval vessel sunk: Motor minesweeper YMS-48, by coastal defense gun, Philippine Islands area, 14 d. 24'N., 120 d. 33'E.' Same entry lists destroyers Fletcher (DD-445), Radford (DD-446), La Vallette (DD-448) and Hopewell (DD-681) as damaged the same day in the Philippine Islands area - the Corregidor/Bataan operations.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-05
- Study period
- 1945-02-14
- Population
- Crew aboard at loss (complement ~33)
- Limitations
- Official Navy Department compilation attributing the sinking to the coastal-defense gun hit alone; does not record the follow-on detail (documented in the Fletcher action report, ev-03) that the disabled hulk was sunk by Fletcher's own guns to prevent salvage/navigation hazard. Position 14 deg 24'N, 120 deg 33'E corroborates NavSource/uboat. Contains no asbestos information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-yms-48-yms48-02
-
[4]USS Fletcher (DD-445) Combat Action Report, Serial 020, 22 February 1945 - 'Action Report - Manila Bay Operations, 13 February through 17 February, 1945' (verbatim transcription hosted by the USS Fletcher Reunion Group) [other_primary]
- Locator
- ussfletcher.org/history/corregidor.html - Part I summary item 3; Part III chronological account, entries 1415-1450 of 14 February 1945; Enclosure (C) Personnel Casualty Report
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- The destroyer's own action report documents the loss of this hull minute by minute: Fletcher's Part I summary lists 'rescue of survivors of YMS 48 fatally hit by shore batteries' among her activities; the chronology records 1415 'Stood in toward YMS 48 in North Channel 1100 yards off the beach, Alasin Point, Bataan, which was dead in the water and afire from shell hits, to pick up survivors in accordance with orders from CTG 77.3'; 1420 'Smoker planes laid smoke screen over batteries to cover rescue work and remainder of survivors'; 1425 'Lying to - commenced taking aboard survivors of YMS'; 1433 'YMS damaged beyond salvage - sunk by automatic weapons'; 1450 'completed rescue of survivors.' The report also notes Fletcher herself was hit by a six-inch shell from a Corregidor battery at 1326.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-05
- Study period
- 1945-02-13 to 1945-02-17
- Population
- YMS-48 crew (survivors taken aboard Fletcher); Fletcher crew
- Limitations
- Verbatim transcription of the official action report hosted on a private reunion-group site (ussfletcher.org) - document provenance is the ship's own serial-numbered report to CinC U.S. Fleet, but the transcript itself is third-party; the underlying report is filed at NARA. The report documents Fletcher's own casualties by name (enclosure C) but does not enumerate YMS-48's casualties; secondary compilations disagree on the YMS-48 casualty count (carried in gaps). Contains no asbestos information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-yms-48-yms48-03
-
[5]uboat.net Allied Warships - USS YMS-48 (YMS-48) vessel page and Operations Reckless/Persecution order of battle; corroborated by shipbuildinghistory.com Wheeler Shipbuilding (Whitestone) yard table and Yard Minesweepers (YMS/BYMS) index [other_primary]
- Locator
- uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/9468.html - vessel table, loss history, Reckless/Persecution OOB (TG 77.3, minesweepers); shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/emergencysmall/wheelerw.htm - YMS-48 row
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- uboat.net record for this hull: built by Wheeler Shipbuilding Corp. (Whitestone, Long Island, NY); ordered 1 April 1941; laid down 27 June 1941; launched 15 May 1942; commissioned 14 July 1942; lost 14 February 1945 at 14 deg 24'N, 120 deg 33'E - 'Sunk by USS Fletcher north of Corregidor, Philippines... after being damaged by Japanese shore batteries.' Order-of-battle documentation places YMS-48 (Lt. R.C. Lynch, USNR, commanding) in Task Group 77.3, Eastern Attack Group, for Operations Reckless and Persecution - the 22 April 1944 amphibious landings at Hollandia and Aitape, New Guinea - departing Cape Cretin in Echelon R-1 Group H on 18 April 1944 with YMS-51. shipbuildinghistory's Wheeler Whitestone table lists hull YMS-48, minesweeper, 278 t., 136 ft, delivered 14-Jul-42, 'Damaged by gunfire at Corregidor and scuttled 1945.'
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-05
- Study period
- 1941-1945
- Limitations
- Tertiary compilations, not official sources - consistent with NavSource and the official chronology on the loss, and consistent with each other on builder/Whitestone (against NavSource's 'Brooklyn'). The Hollandia OOB is compiled from wartime operational documents but is not itself an official record; Lt. R.C. Lynch as commanding officer rests on uboat.net alone. shipbuildinghistory's 278 t. conflicts with NavSource's 320 t. (displacement discrepancy carried in gaps). Contains no asbestos information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-yms-48-yms48-04
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[6]U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 74/1/539 (January 1948), 'Saga of a YMS' - first-person account of YMS-class machinery and habitability by a YMS-238 officer [reputable_press]
- Locator
- Proceedings 74/1 (Jan 1948), p.539 - power-plant and internal-arrangement passages
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- YMS-class machinery fit documented by a serving officer: wooden hull; two General Motors diesels for main propulsion; a similar diesel direct-connected to a generator for magnetic minesweeping; two Hercules 30-kW diesel generators for auxiliary power. No boilers and no steam distribution - the plant type that carried the era's dominant asbestos application (thermal insulation of boilers and steam piping) is absent from this class, including this hull.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-05
- Study period
- 1941-1948
- Population
- YMS-class crews; construction trades at the type's yacht yards (class context)
- Limitations
- Class/era inference, not a hull record: describes sister ship YMS-238 and the type generally; never mentions asbestos. The conclusion that this hull lacked steam-plant insulation is structural inference from the documented plant; does not establish presence or absence of residual ACM (gaskets, clutch facings, cable insulation) aboard YMS-48. Page returned HTTP 403 to scripted fetch in prior batch sessions; wording verified against retrieved full text in batches 1680/1689.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-yms-48-yms48-05
-
[7]GAO, Navy Efforts To Protect Workers From Asbestos Exposure, HRD-80-2 (Oct 18, 1979); U.S. Dept. of the Navy / DOE, Final EIS/OEIS for Disposal of Decommissioned, Defueled Ex-Enterprise (CVN 65), DOE/EIS-0524 (June 2023), Section 3.2.2.1.1; DOE/EA-1889 (2012) ('Asbestos insulation is commonly found in older ships'); Corn & Starr, 'Historical perspective on asbestos: Policies and protective measures in World War II shipbuilding,' Am J Ind Med 11(3):359-373 (1987), doi:10.1002/ajim.4700110311 [gao]
- Locator
- GAO HRD-80-2 highlights and letter text; EIS-0524 Section 3.2.2.1.1; DOE/EA-1889 asbestos section; AJIM 11(3):359-373
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/program context: the Navy told GAO (HRD-80-2) that all ships contain some asbestos in such components as clutches and electric cables, while thermal insulation was the Navy's major shipboard use of asbestos; the Navy's own disposal EIS states asbestos-containing material 'is found throughout Navy ships in insulating materials on piping systems, in electrical cables, and on ship structures' - era-generic statements covering a 1941-42 Navy build; Corn & Starr document extensive asbestos use as fireproofing and insulation in WWII-era U.S. shipbuilding. For this diesel-powered wooden minesweeper the residual documented categories - clutch facings, electric-cable insulation, gaskets, packing - are the relevant era-typical applications.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-10-05
- Study period
- 1941-1945 (service); 1979/1987/2012/2023 (documentation)
- Population
- Construction trades (Whitestone, 1941-42) and crew 1942-1945 (class context)
- Limitations
- Program-level and era-generic statements plus class-design inference only - prioritizes research; NOT a ship-specific finding. GAO fieldwork covered Long Beach and Norfolk Naval Shipyards decades after this hull sank. No material list, survey, or hull record for this vessel exists in located sources. Does not establish presence, quantity, condition, individual exposure, or causation aboard this hull. gao.gov returned HTTP 403 to scripted fetch in prior sessions (standing defect since Batch 01); the quoted statements were verified against retrieved full text in batches 128/1680/1683/1689.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-yms-48-yms48-06
-
[8]corregidor.org (Corregidor Historic Society compilation), 'USN Losses in Vicinity of Corregidor' table and 'USN KIAs at Corregidor' narrative/Rock Force burials listing [other_primary]
- Locator
- corregidor.org/USN/htm/usn_losses.html - losses table; corregidor.org/USN/htm/usn_kia.html - KIA table and narrative; corregidor.org/rock_force/taps/kia_draft_listing.htm - Smothers listing
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Corregidor-focused historical compilation records this hull's loss: 'USS YMS-48 | Motor Mine Sweeper | 14 February 1945 | damaged by shore batteries at 14 deg 24'N, 120 deg 33'E., sunk by USS Fletcher, in Manila Bay, P.I.' Its KIA table lists one crewman, William Smothers (YMS-48, USN, 14.02.45). Its narrative adds rescue-sequence detail: Hopewell first closed the stricken minesweeper to take survivors and was hit four times (7 KIA, 12 WIA); after Hopewell withdrew, Fletcher completed the rescue and, 'on orders from Captain Cavanaugh, the division commander... turned her guns on the abandoned hulk of the YMS-48, which had burned to the waterline, and sank her so she would not become a navigational hazard.'
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-05
- Study period
- 1945-02-14
- Population
- YMS-48 crew at loss
- Limitations
- Private historical compilation (Corregidor Historic Society / Paul F. Whitman), not an official source - consistent with the Fletcher action report's own chronology but adds detail (Hopewell's first rescue attempt; a named single KIA) the action report does not state. Casualty count conflicts: this compilation lists 1 KIA while Wikipedia's Battle of Corregidor article asserts '3 MIA/KIA'; no official YMS-48 casualty figure located - carried in gaps. Contains no asbestos information.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-yms-48-yms48-07
-
[9]NARA Special List #44, 'List of Logbooks of U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and Miscellaneous Units, 1801-1947,' ship-numbers volume - YMS-48 inventory row; plus NARA 'Navy Deck Logs Available in the National Archives Catalog' digitized list [other_primary]
- Locator
- Special List #44 ship-numbers volume, YMS-48 row ('YMS-48 10/1/1942 9/30/1944'); archives.gov/research/military/logbooks/navy-online digitized list (no YMS-48 entry)
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- NARA inventories deck logs for YMS-48 covering 10/1/1942 - 9/30/1944 (Special List 44, ship-numbers listing). Coverage begins about 2.5 months after the ship's 14 July 1942 completion/commissioning and ends about 4.5 months before the 14 February 1945 sinking - the logbooks for the ship's final months (including the Corregidor loss) are absent from the inventory, consistent with logs lost with the ship or never turned in. YMS-48 does not appear on NARA's digitized-deck-log list (logs not digitized; paper/microfilm only at College Park). Archival leads beyond the deck logs: Bureau of Ships RG 19 design/contract files for the YMS-1 type and the Wheeler Shipbuilding contract; Seventh Fleet/TG 77.3 and TG 78.3 operational records for the Hollandia and Manila Bay periods; and the ship's own war-damage/loss report and any surviving February 1945 log fragments.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-05
- Study period
- 1942-1945 records
- Limitations
- Leads only - the SL44 row establishes that logbooks for this hull exist in NARA custody for the stated span; it does not describe their contents, and the logs are not digitized (not on the NARA digitized list as of this session). The catalog front end is a JS application inaccessible to scripted fetch, so catalog-level confirmation of the holding unit could not be made in-session; the SL44 PDF (official finding aid) verified live (HTTP 200). Deck logs are chronological event records and would not themselves identify asbestos content. Nothing in this row is an asbestos finding.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-yms-48-yms48-08
-
[10]Batch-9125 search ledger (this record): NavSource live fetch; official U.S. Naval Chronology mirror; USS Fletcher action-report transcription; uboat.net and shipbuildinghistory.com compilations; NARA Special List 44 PDF + digitized-logs list; corregidor.org compilation; CourtListener API v4 opinion and docket searches (all designations); indexed-web litigation/asbestos sweep; shipyards.json slug lookup [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-yms-48-yms48-01 through sl-uss-yms-48-yms48-19
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no asbestos survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, docketed case, or VA decision naming YMS-48 was found in the public sources searched (see search_ledger). The hull sank in combat in February 1945 and remains at its documented loss position, so no post-service material history exists to survey. Generic law-firm minesweeper-asbestos listicles exist but do not name this hull - excluded under batch source rules, not cited.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-10-05
- Study period
- 2026-10-05
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - era materials in a 1941-42 diesel minesweeper would still be consistent with class inference, and the sunken hulk went down with whatever was aboard. CourtListener opinion coverage is not exhaustive for unreported or settled matters; undocketed litigation naming this hull could exist. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-yms-48-yms48-09