Bath Iron Works, on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, has built naval destroyers since the 1890s and remains an active shipyard today under General Dynamics. Asbestos was standard insulation material in Navy shipbuilding through the mid-1970s, used in pipe covering, boiler lagging, bulkhead insulation, and gaskets throughout new construction. Workers who built ships at Bath Iron Works during that period, particularly through the peak World War II production years, may have been exposed.
What work happened at Bath Iron Works
Bath Iron Works is a new-construction yard. Unlike installations that focused on overhaul, refit, or ship-breaking, BIW’s core business since the late 1800s has been building destroyers and other surface combatants from the keel up. That distinction matters for exposure patterns: new construction meant asbestos-containing insulation was installed fresh into every hull, in high volume, on a compressed schedule, rather than being disturbed only during periodic repair work.
The yard’s World War II output was intense. Employment grew to a documented peak of approximately 12,000 workers in 1943, roughly 1,600 of them women, and the yard built destroyers at a pace of roughly one every 17 days during the war, contributing about 82 destroyers toward the Navy’s wartime destroyer program (Encyclopedia.com company history). That pace meant pipefitters, insulators, welders, and other trades were working in close quarters with newly installed asbestos insulation on a continuous basis.
Bath Iron Works has been owned by General Dynamics since 1995 and continues building Arleigh Burke-class destroyers for the Navy today. Nothing on this page describes current shipbuilding practices or current working conditions at the yard. It describes historical asbestos use, which federal law has regulated since the 1970s.
Ships in our roster built at this yard
Our internal roster currently tracks fourteen Navy ship classes across 31 shipyards, not the full construction history of any single yard. Within that fourteen-class roster, 79 ships were built at Bath Iron Works, commissioned between 1942 and 1961, across four destroyer classes: Fletcher, Allen M. Sumner, Gearing, and Charles F. Adams. Bath Iron Works built many more ships than these 79 over its full history; this table reflects only what our current dataset covers.
| Ship | Hull number | Class | Commissioned |
|---|---|---|---|
| USS Nicholas | DD-449 | Fletcher-class | 1942 |
| USS O’Bannon | DD-450 | Fletcher-class | 1942 |
| USS Chevalier | DD-451 | Fletcher-class | 1942 |
| USS Strong | DD-467 | Fletcher-class | 1942 |
| USS Taylor | DD-468 | Fletcher-class | 1942 |
| USS De Haven | DD-469 | Fletcher-class | 1942 |
| USS Conway | DD-507 | Fletcher-class | 1942 |
| USS Cony | DD-508 | Fletcher-class | 1942 |
| USS Converse | DD-509 | Fletcher-class | 1942 |
| USS Eaton | DD-510 | Fletcher-class | 1942 |
| USS Foote | DD-511 | Fletcher-class | 1942 |
| USS Spence | DD-512 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Terry | DD-513 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Thatcher | DD-514 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Anthony | DD-515 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Wadsworth | DD-516 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Walker | DD-517 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Abbot | DD-629 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Braine | DD-630 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Erben | DD-631 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Hale | DD-642 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Sigourney | DD-643 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Stembel | DD-644 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Caperton | DD-650 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Cogswell | DD-651 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Ingersoll | DD-652 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Knapp | DD-653 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Remey | DD-688 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Wadleigh | DD-689 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Norman Scott | DD-690 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Mertz | DD-691 | Fletcher-class | 1943 |
| USS Barton | DD-722 | Allen M. Sumner-class | 1943 |
| USS Walke | DD-723 | Allen M. Sumner-class | 1944 |
| USS Laffey | DD-724 | Allen M. Sumner-class | 1944 |
| USS O’Brien | DD-725 | Allen M. Sumner-class | 1944 |
| USS Meredith | DD-726 | Allen M. Sumner-class | 1944 |
| USS De Haven | DD-727 | Allen M. Sumner-class | 1944 |
| USS Mansfield | DD-728 | Allen M. Sumner-class | 1944 |
| USS Lyman K. Swenson | DD-729 | Allen M. Sumner-class | 1944 |
| USS Collett | DD-730 | Allen M. Sumner-class | 1944 |
| USS Maddox | DD-731 | Allen M. Sumner-class | 1944 |
| USS Hyman | DD-732 | Allen M. Sumner-class | 1944 |
| USS Mannert L. Abele | DD-733 | Allen M. Sumner-class | 1944 |
| USS Purdy | DD-734 | Allen M. Sumner-class | 1944 |
| USS Drexler | DD-741 | Allen M. Sumner-class | 1944 |
| USS Frank Knox | DD-742 | Gearing-class | 1944 |
| USS Southerland | DD-743 | Gearing-class | 1944 |
| USS Chevalier | DD-805 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Higbee | DD-806 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Benner | DD-807 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Dennis J. Buckley | DD-808 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Myles C. Fox | DD-829 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Everett F. Larson | DD-830 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Goodrich | DD-831 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Hanson | DD-832 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Herbert J. Thomas | DD-833 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Turner | DD-834 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Charles P. Cecil | DD-835 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS George K. MacKenzie | DD-836 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Sarsfield | DD-837 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Ernest G. Small | DD-838 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Power | DD-839 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Glennon | DD-840 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Noa | DD-841 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Fiske | DD-842 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Warrington | DD-843 | Gearing-class | 1945 |
| USS Agerholm | DD-826 | Gearing-class | 1946 |
| USS Perry | DD-844 | Gearing-class | 1946 |
| USS Bausell | DD-845 | Gearing-class | 1946 |
| USS Ozbourn | DD-846 | Gearing-class | 1946 |
| USS Robert L. Wilson | DD-847 | Gearing-class | 1946 |
| USS Witek | DD-848 | Gearing-class | 1946 |
| USS Richard E. Kraus | DD-849 | Gearing-class | 1946 |
| USS Robert A. Owens | DD-827 | Gearing-class | 1949 |
| USS Timmerman | DD-828 | Gearing-class | 1952 |
| USS Charles F. Adams | DDG-2 | Charles F. Adams-class | 1960 |
| USS Sampson | DDG-10 | Charles F. Adams-class | 1961 |
| USS Sellers | DDG-11 | Charles F. Adams-class | 1961 |
| USS John King | DDG-3 | Charles F. Adams-class | 1961 |
If you or a family member served aboard one of these ships, or worked at Bath Iron Works during their construction, that ship name and hull number is useful information to bring to any documentation search.
Documented asbestos use at this yard
Bath Iron Works has a specific, government-documented enforcement history involving asbestos, separate from the general fact that asbestos was standard shipbuilding material in this era.
On November 4, 1987, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations against Bath Iron Works Corporation with a combined proposed penalty of $4,175,940, a figure that appears on OSHA’s own list of its largest enforcement cases on record (OSHA Top Enforcement Cases). That total spans two separate 1987 inspections at the yard, one a planned safety inspection and one a complaint-based health inspection. Within the health inspection, OSHA cited a willful violation of the federal asbestos standard, 29 CFR 1910.1001, covering three instances with ten workers documented as exposed (OSHA violation detail, inspection 101450294).
A formal settlement dated October 27, 1988 resolved both citation dockets. It required Bath Iron Works to bring its asbestos compliance program into full compliance with OSHA standards, alongside upgrades to respiratory protection and other health and safety programs, with combined settled penalties of $650,000 across the two dockets (OSHA settlement record).
Bath Iron Works was also the subject of a consolidated federal court case in Maine, 589 F. Supp. 1563 (D. Me. 1984), which addressed how the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act applied to asbestos-related claims tied to shipyard employment (589 F. Supp. 1563, via Justia).
Separately, the National Archives’ own research guide to Navy asbestos-related records uses Bath Iron Works as its illustrative example of how correspondence involving private shipyards is filed within Bureau of Ships records, noting that Bath Iron Works material would be filed under “QM/Bath Iron Works” in Record Group 19 (National Archives, Navy asbestos research guide). This is useful for anyone trying to locate original wartime or postwar Navy documentation tied to this yard.
Trades and ratings with documented exposure
OSHA’s 1987 asbestos citation at Bath Iron Works was specific to workers covered under the federal asbestos standard for occupational exposure, which in a shipyard setting historically covered trades that installed, removed, or worked near asbestos insulation and lagging: pipefitters and pipe coverers, insulators, boilermakers, sheet metal workers, and shipfitters working in enclosed spaces such as engine rooms, boiler rooms, and piping runs. Ten workers were specifically documented as exposed in the cited instances of that 1987 violation.
Because Bath Iron Works built ships rather than repairing them, exposure at this yard is associated primarily with new-construction trades rather than overhaul or demolition trades. Anyone who worked in engine room fitting, pipe covering, insulation, or boiler work at this yard during the era when asbestos insulation was standard should treat that work history as relevant.
Environmental record
Bath Iron Works does not appear on the EPA’s National Priorities List for Maine, and it is not listed among Maine’s Superfund sites (EPA, Superfund NPL sites in Maine). No asbestos-specific Superfund or NPL designation exists for this yard, and this page does not claim otherwise.
The yard’s documented EPA enforcement history is environmental in a different sense. In 2018, EPA and Bath Iron Works settled Clean Water Act and Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act allegations involving sandblasting grit and wash water discharged to the Kennebec River, plus missed toxic release reporting, for a $355,000 penalty (EPA settlement document, CWA-01-2018-0033). That case did not name asbestos.
If you worked at this yard
If you or a family member worked at Bath Iron Works, especially during the 1940s through the 1970s, a few types of records can help establish when and where that work happened:
- Military service records and a DD-214, if the work was tied to Navy service rather than civilian shipyard employment
- Civilian employment records from Bath Iron Works or its parent companies, if available
- Union or trade local records, for pipefitters, insulators, boilermakers, and related trades
- Ship assignment records tied to any hull number from the table above
These records help establish a documented history of where someone worked and when, which is a separate question from any medical diagnosis. A diagnosis of mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease should always be evaluated by a physician familiar with occupational and military exposure history.
For general background on other shipyards, visit the shipyards hub. For an overview of how asbestos trusts work, visit the trusts overview. For information on VA paperwork related to asbestos-linked conditions, visit VA forms for mesothelioma. If you want help organizing what you already have, the veteran case review page walks through what that process looks like.