Essex Class Aircraft Carriers (CV/CVA/CVS) — Asbestos in WWII Carriers

The Essex class aircraft carriers — 24 hulls built between 1942 and 1950 at Newport News Shipbuilding, Bethlehem Steel (Quincy), New York Naval Shipyard, and Philadelphia Naval Shipyard — served as the primary US Navy carrier type through World War II and the Cold War. Essex class carriers used four Westinghouse steam turbine plants with eight Babcock & Wilcox boilers operating at 565 PSI / 850°F, generating 150,000 shaft horsepower. The scale of the Essex class engineering plant, combined with the vast interior construction in crew berthing, aviation maintenance, and working spaces for 3,000+ man crews, made these carriers one of the highest-volume asbestos-containing vessel types in the US fleet.

Engineering Plant Asbestos

Essex class carriers used the same B&W boilers as their contemporaneous cruiser and destroyer counterparts, with the same asbestos insulation requirements across their large-scale engineering plant:

• Eight B&W boilers in four firerooms with asbestos block, sectional covering, and cement insulation on boiler casings, steam drums, and superheater sections
• Four Westinghouse steam turbine sets in four engine rooms with asbestos block insulation on turbine casings and high-temperature exhaust connections
• Main steam distribution piping throughout the carrier’s engineering spaces at 565 PSI service pressure, covered with asbestos block insulation
• Auxiliary steam systems serving the carrier’s massive hotel loads — aviation fuel heating, catapult steam, laundry, galley, and domestic systems — using asbestos-insulated piping throughout the ship’s interior

Aviation Spaces and Interior Construction

Essex class carriers were designed to support air wing operations with extensive below-deck aviation maintenance, ordnance handling, and crew habitability spaces. All were built with asbestos-containing materials in their interior construction:

• Crew berthing for 3,000+ personnel using asbestos floor tile, overhead lagging, and bulkhead insulation throughout the multiple berthing decks
• Hangar bay deck using asbestos-containing thermal tile and deck coverings on some hulls in the original construction
• Aviation maintenance shops on the hangar deck level built with asbestos-containing overhead fireproofing on structural steel
• Ordnance magazines and handling spaces with asbestos-containing construction in bulkheads and overheads separating ordnance and machinery spaces

Class-Wide Documentation and Named Vessels

The Essex class is among the most thoroughly documented carrier classes in the publicly filed asbestos litigation record. Documentation addressing machinery insulation, class-wide asbestos profiles, and individual vessel exposure records appears across multiple independent litigation filings. Named Essex class carriers that appear in the asbestos record include USS Essex (CV-9), USS Yorktown (CV-10), USS Intrepid (CV-11), USS Hornet (CV-12), USS Franklin (CV-13), USS Ticonderoga (CV-14), USS Randolph (CV-15), USS Lexington (CV-16), USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), USS Wasp (CV-18), USS Hancock (CV-19), USS Bennington (CV-20), USS Boxer (CV-21), USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31), USS Leyte (CV-32), USS Kearsarge (CV-33), USS Oriskany (CV-34), USS Princeton (CV-37), USS Antietam (CV-36), USS Lake Champlain (CV-39), USS Tarawa (CV-40), USS Valley Forge (CV-45), USS Philippine Sea (CV-47), and USS Saipan (CVL-48).

SCB Modernizations

Many Essex class hulls received postwar SCB (Ship Characteristics Board) modernizations including angled flight deck, enclosed hurricane bow, and updated electronics. These modernizations involved extensive shipyard overhaul work at which insulators stripped and replaced asbestos insulation, creating additional asbestos fiber exposure during shipyard availability periods at which ship’s company personnel were present.

VA Claims for Essex Class Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure aboard Navy carriers. Veterans who served aboard Essex class carriers in any configuration — CV, CVA, CVS, or CVT — before the vessels’ final decommissioning and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.

Source notes: equipment-manifest entries (where shown) are sourced from public-record BUSHIPS (Bureau of Ships) documentation, NARA archives, and the public asbestos litigation record. Manufacturer attributions link to documented asbestos-product histories on AsbestosIndex.com where available. Nothing on this page constitutes medical or legal advice.