USS Davison (DD-618)
The USS Davison (DD-618) served in the U.S. Navy for more than half a decade in the mid-20th century, and remained on the Navy list until the early 1970s. She was named for Lieutenant Commander Gregory Caldwell Davison who served as Vice President of the Electric Boat Corporation in Groton, Connecticut. Davison was a member of the Gleaves class of destroyers.
Construction
Davison was laid down at Kearny, New Jersey by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in February 1942, launched in July, and commissioned in September with Lieutenant Commander W.C. Winn in command. Carrying a crew of 208, Davison was 348 feet four inches long and armed with six one-half inch machine guns, four five-inch anti-aircraft guns, and ten 21-inch torpedo tubes.
Naval History
Davison began her naval service on a transport screening mission out of New York in November 1942. During this deployment, Davison protected ships carrying troops and supplies to French Morocco in December. She conducted two more voyages to North Africa under this capacity, and then operated with Task Force 85 for the invasion of Sicily in July. Following a trip back to New York in August, Davison embarked on a convoy mission to Bizerte and then screened a convoy from Belfast, Northern Ireland to Palermo, Sicily in October. Davison endured several attacks from German planes during this time, and rescued survivors of Beatty when that vessel succumbed to enemy strikes.
Davison was converted to high-speed minesweeper DMS-37, at Charleston, South Carolina in June 1945, underwent training in Chesapeake Bay, and then was deployed to the western Pacific at the end of August. She arrived at Okinawa in mid-October and conducted minesweeping operations in the Yellow Sea. Davison remained in the region for the occupation until March 1946, and after a stay at San Francisco, served on another western Pacific tour from September 1946 to March 1947.
The destroyer returned once again to the Marshall Islands in March 1948 for balloon tests with the Naval Research Laboratory. Davison sailed to San Diego, California in June and was placed in reserve there in June 1949, reverted back to DD-618 in July 1955, struck from the Navy list in January 1972, and sold for scrap in August 1973.
Asbestos Risk on the USS Davison (DD-618)
Major developments in the industrial economy of the 19th century led to the development boilers, steam engines, and other heavy equipment that required the utilization of asbestos products, such as insulation, for protection from extreme heat.
Civilian and military vessels such as the USS Davison also employed asbestos as an insulating material for their engineering applications since the beginning of the 20th century. Naval vessels carry many pieces of equipment that generate extreme levels of thermal energy, such as pumps and boilers. Asbestos was deployed as insulation for that equipment.
Since materials containing asbestos were installed in so many places, essentially all crewmen on board the ship risked some level of exposure at some point during their service. Some crewmen suffered from a greater chance of asbestos exposure, however; crewmen assigned to work on the ship’s engines or other heavy machinery and boilermen tending to boiler equipment were just two of the more high-risk occupations for asbestos exposure.
Developing malignant mesothelioma is known to be strongly associated with the overall level of exposure as well as the total time of exposure. Scientific researchers have demonstrated a positive link between inhalation of frayed or broken asbestos fibers and the development of pleural mesothelioma. Many who served on the USS Davison may be at risk to develop some form of mesothelioma.
Sources
Haze Gray & Underway. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. DD-618.
(http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/destroy/dd618txt.htm) Retrieved 27 January 2011.
NavSource Naval History. USS Davison (DD-618).
(http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/618.htm) Retrieved 27 January 2011.
