The USS Spangenberg (DE/DER-223) was a Buckley-class destroyer escort laid down on April 5, 1943, and launched on July 3, the same year. It was commissioned on April 15, 1944, under Lt. H. P. Whitney’s command with the hull number DE-223 and served in the U.S. Navy for 3 years until it was decommissioned on October 28, 1947. During its activity, the ship carried a complement of 213 men on board and had its main missions in Norfolk, Boston, Bermuda, Bizerte, northern Africa, Halifax, Liverpool, Azores, and Milford Haven. After the decommissioning, the ship was reclassified as DER-223 in March 1949 and it was struck from the Navy List on November 1, 1965. One year later, on October 29, 1966, the ship was sold for scrapping. Tons of asbestos insulation was used in ships built for military and commercial use from 1930 to about 1970. The mineral was used as fire-retardant material in the bulkheads and the ships’ interior and also to insulate the miles of pipes that ran through the ships. Asbestos-related diseases have a long latency period from the time of initial asbestos exposure to the development of an illness, typically taking between 10 and 40 years to develop.
760-621-6147
