The USS Sicily (CVE-118) was a Commencement Bay-class escort carrier laid down on October 23, 1944, and launched on April 14, the following year. It was commissioned on February 27, 1946, with the hull number CVE-118 under Capt. B. W. Wright’s command and served in the US Navy for 8 years until it was decommissioned on October 4, 1954. During its activity, the ship carried a complement of 1170 people on board and had its main missions in Portland, San Diego, New York, Norfolk, NS Argentia, the Far East, and Seoul. After the decommissioning, the ship was struck from the Navy List on July 1, 1960, and sold for scrapping the same year to Nicolai Joffe Corporation.
Studies have found that it can cause serious health issues to people exposed to it. Asbestos fibers enter into the body through inhalation or ingestion and remain there for a lifetime. Asbestos, the naturally occurring silicate mineral has been exploited by the U.S. Navy in the shipboard pipe and machinery thermal insulation and in many other shipboard products, for their useful properties such as flexibility, high tensile strength, incombustibility, resistance to chemical attack, and low thermal conductivity.
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