Class: Edsall Destroyer Escort
Launched: November 22, 1942
At: Brown Shipbuilding Company, Houston, Texas
Commissioned: May 31, 1943
Length: 307 feet
Beam: 37 feet
Draft: 12 feet
Displacement: 1,490 tons
Armament: Three 3 inch/50 caliber guns, two quad 40mm guns, ten twin 20mm guns, hedgehogs, K-guns and depth charges.
Address for Visiting:
Galveston Naval Museum
Seawolf Park
Galveston, Texas 77552
Address for Inquires:
Cavalla Historical Foundation
6341 Stewart Road, #249
Galveston, Texas 77551-1880
Email: info@galvestonnavalmuseum.com
www.galvestonnavalmuseum.com
Latitude: 29.3340803922, Longitude: -94.7794692107
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USS Stewart was laid down in 1942, on Green Bayou, Houston, Texas, just 50 miles from her home today. She was outfitted in Galveston and commissioned May,1943. She began service operating out of Miami as a “school ship” training student officers. She escorted President Roosevelt in the presidential yacht down the Potomac River to rendezvous with USS Iowa in Chesapeake Bay for his secret mission to Casablanca and Tehran. In 1944, she commenced North Atlantic convoy operations, making 30 crossings with occasional enemy submarine and aircraft encounters. Heavy seas and icing conditions were frequent.
In April, 1945 Stewart came to the rescue of the flaming gasoline tanker, SS Saint Mihiel. The Stewart and part of the Mihiel crew put out the fires saving the ship.
Stewart moved into the Pacific theater in July, 1945, where she briefly conducted training exercises out of Pearl Harbor. Stewart was escorting a large convoy toward Japan when news came of Japan’s surrender. The convoy made a perfect curved 180 degree turn and headed back to the US.
She was decommissioned in January, 1947. In 1974, Stewart was formally donated to Seawolf Park. She is the second ship named for Rear Admiral Charles Stewart who commanded another ship in the historic naval fleet, USS Constitution, from 1813 to 1815.
USS Stewart is a National Historic Landmark.
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