The SS James Bennett More was a Liberty Ship built in the U.S. to be used during World War II. It was named after an assistant engineer who was lost at sea while working on the freighter SS Massmar in July 1942, after its convoy strayed into a minefield. The ship was constructed under a MARCOM contract by J.A. Jones Construction at their shipyards in Brunswick, Georgia, and launched in January 1945. It was allocated to A.L. Burbank and remained under their control throughout the war. It was laid up in the reserve fleet in the Hudson River Group after the war and withdrawn several times for grain transportation until March 1971 when it was sold to Union Minerals & Alloys for scrapping. As asbestos fibers are invisible to the human eye, they can be inhaled without a person’s knowledge. When inhaled, asbestos fibers lodge in the lungs and scar the lung tissue. Over time, this can lead to lung tissue scarring, and ultimately to cancerous cell mutation. The damage caused through exposure through the handling of asbestos-containing materials takes longer to manifest as disease, and symptoms may not appear until up to 40 years after the first exposure.
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