Lance,
The standard white hex floor tiles were still available a few years ago when we needed some to fix our 1906 house. It is an enduring design.
A quick look on the web indicates that the tiles themselves are not likely to have significant asbestos. However, there is no way to tell if the underlayment and grout had it without testing.
Did you mean the linoleum that is in other areas of the boat when discussing sound dampening? The tiles would have been great for water resistance, underlayment for drainage slope, but not for sound. The linoleum was better for sound than the tile. The engine rooms, CT, etc had removable felt mats on the steel diamond plate for sound dampening.
Pre-1949 sheet linoleum does not usually have significant amounts of asbestos, although from 1900 on there were linoleum products with asbestos. From 1949-1970s it was common. The only way to tell is to test. All the linoleum flooring on Pampanito was replaced with modern (probably vinyl) non-asbestos product during the early 1990s. I do not think they tested.
So far on Pampanito, some lagging in the pump room, engine room and galley have been tested and where negative for asbestos. The places we have not tested that are good candidates the oven insulation and the fresh water stills. Both are protected from disturbance by steel. There may be small amounts in the water heater electrical boxes, and misc. motor controllers so I would be careful not disturb them. High temperature gaskets often used it, but I think of these as for steam plants. I do not know if they were used for the mostly low temperature applications on the submarine. We have not tested the few that have been replaced.
While on the hazmat digression, two years ago we did a lot of testing for lead paint on the exterior hull and did not find any. It was likely in the coatings on the outside of the hull from the war, and from the maintenance done in the early 1980s. However, over the multiple drydockings and basic maintenance pretty much everything exterior must have been to bare steel at some point. When we remove equipment we use the swab tests to check underneath. Inside the hull there have only been a few hotspots, but it mostly does not have lead even where it is clearly from WW II. A couple of pieces of equipment recovered from other ships had lead paint. We recently had to send some Bofors seats that came from one of the battleships to a local shipyard to be blasted because they had lead (they donated.) We keep the lead swabs around and check whenever we go to a new area, but we seem to be pretty lucky on the lead issue.
So far on Pampanito only depth gauges have been found positive for radium/radioactivity. They had radium, but at the distance of their glass lens were well below the level for un-monitored public exposure. So as long as we do not open them and disturb the dials, needles, etc. we are OK. I should also mention that it is really important not to block the ventilation holes. If radium gauges are totally sealed they may eventually become hot enough to be a hazard. This happened with some gauges at NHHC that were eventually destroyed. We have had two broad radiologic surveys donated where properly equipped experts used calibrated equipment to spot check many of the gauges and most (maybe all) of the sound powered phones. They did not find anything outside the depth gauges. I know that other ships have the glow in the dark buttons on the sound powered phones and on some non-depth gauges. Our clinometers are replicas, but the drawings for these call for radium paint.
Have any of the WW II boats actually verified by testing asbestos on them? If so, where? Same for lead paint based on testing, esp. interior vs. exterior?
rich