During the last century, Offshore Trawlers, Inc. was owned by John E. Graham & Sons and was located in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. It was a shipyard that was operational until 1982 when the market collapsed. Because it was active between the 1920s and the 1980s, it means that the shipyard made use of asbestos, as the mineral was fundamental in shipbuilding. It has plenty of convenient properties, the most important being resistance to extreme temperatures, and back in the day, it was also widely available and cheap to purchase. Employees would inhale toxic asbestos dust while cutting and sanding building materials that should have fit perfectly in the vessels. Insulators were also exposed to asbestos as they had to work directly with the mineral without any protective gear.
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