USS Yorktown (CV-10) — Asbestos Aboard the Essex-Class 'Fighting Lady'

USS Yorktown (CV-10) — the “Fighting Lady,” named for the USS Yorktown (CV-5) sunk at Midway — was an Essex-class aircraft carrier commissioned in April 1943 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. Yorktown distinguished herself in WWII Pacific combat from the Gilbert Islands campaign through the Philippine Sea and Okinawa, and later served two Vietnam combat cruises in 1964-1965 and 1966-1967. After decommissioning in 1970, Yorktown was preserved as a museum ship at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Yorktown’s WWII-era construction used asbestos throughout her steam plant, boiler system, and interior spaces, creating sustained crew asbestos exposure across her 27 years of active service.

WWII-Era Steam Plant Asbestos

Yorktown’s 1943 engineering plant reflected wartime construction materials:

• Boiler plant insulation — Yorktown’s eight Babcock & Wilcox boilers used asbestos lagging on boiler external surfaces, asbestos refractory brick lining in combustion chambers, and asbestos rope and sealing materials at boiler access doors. The boiler plant was the primary asbestos exposure zone aboard Yorktown for the BT ratings who maintained the ship’s boilers across her operational life
• Steam distribution piping — main steam piping from Yorktown’s firerooms to the enginerooms and to auxiliary steam loads used asbestos pipe covering insulation — asbestos magnesia block under canvas jacketing — on the hot steam lines throughout the engineering spaces. MM and BT ratings standing engineering watches and performing maintenance in the firerooms and enginerooms worked in sustained proximity to the asbestos-covered steam piping
• Main propulsion turbines — Westinghouse main propulsion turbines and the ship’s service turbine generators used asbestos-containing casing and steam chest insulation materials in the WWII-era construction

WWII Combat and Vietnam Service

Yorktown’s active service spans three decades of asbestos-era naval operations:

• WWII Pacific operations from 1943 to the end of the war placed Yorktown’s crew of over 3,000 personnel in sustained occupancy of the ship’s asbestos-containing engineering and accommodation spaces throughout the Pacific campaign
• Vietnam combat operations on two cruises (1964-65, 1966-67) extended the crew asbestos exposure profile of Yorktown service into the mid-Vietnam era

VA Claims for USS Yorktown Veterans

VA evaluates asbestos-related disability claims on a case-by-case basis. Veterans generally need evidence of in-service asbestos exposure, a current asbestos-related diagnosis, and a medical link between them. Engineering ratings and crew members who served aboard USS Yorktown 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.