The USS Nassau (CVE-16) was a Bogue-class escort aircraft carrier laid down on November 27, 1941, and launched on April 4, the following year. It was commissioned on August 20, 1942, under Capt. Austin K. Doyle’s command with the hull number CVE-16 and served in the US Navy for 4 years until it was decommissioned on October 28, 1946. During its activity, the ship carried a complement of 890 men on board and had its main missions in Alameda, Pearl Harbor, Palmyra Island, Nouméa, Espiritu Santo, Alaska, Brisbane, and San Diego. After the decommissioning, the ship was struck from the Navy Register on March 1, 1959, and subsequently sold for scrapping in Japan. For the services brought to the country during World War II, the USS Nassau received 5 battle stars.
Asbestos is a highly heat-resistant mineral, which is why it was used so widely in almost every Navy ship from the 1930s to the early 1980s. Due to its small size, asbestos was mostly used to create asbestos-containing materials found in the form of molded insulation materials and also in boilers, turbines, pumps, gaskets, and valves, used on naval vessels exposing personnel to its microscopic fibers and later on causing them to develop pulmonary issues.
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