The USS Tripoli (CVE-64) was a Casablanca-class escort carrier laid down on February 1, 1943, and launched on July 13, the same year. It was commissioned on October 31, 1943, with the hull number CVE-64 under Capt. Wendell G. Switzer’s command and served in the US Navy for 15 years until it was decommissioned on November 25, 1958. After the decommissioning, the ship was struck from the Navy List on February 1, 1959, and sold for scrapping in January, the following year.
Asbestos was used frequently as a thermal and fire insulator and can be found in gaskets, pipes, boilers, electrical fixtures, bulkheads, and walls. It was also used as a noise and vibration dampener and was seen in high concentrations in engine rooms. The worst areas on escort aircraft carriers were in the fire, pump, and boiler rooms where insulation covered the pipes and wirings. Some of the personnel most at risk include hull maintenance technicians, boiler tenders, firemen, electrician’s mates, enginemen, machinist mates, pipefitters, and shipfitters.
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