USS Stewart (DD-224)

Coordinates: 37°44′56″N 122°43′44″W / 37.749°N 122.729°W / 37.749; -122.729
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other ships with the same name, see USS Stewart.
USS Stewart (DD-224) underway c1930s
USS Stewart underway before WWII
History
United States
NameUSS Stewart
Namesake
Charles Stewart
BuilderWilliam Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia[1]
Yard number490
Laid down9 September 1919
Launched4 March 1920
Sponsored byMrs. Margaretta Stewart Stevens
Commissioned15 September 1920
Stricken25 March 1942
IdentificationDD-224
Honors and
awards		2
battle stars
FateScuttled at Surabaya, Java, 2 March 1942; later raised and commissioned into Imperial Japanese Navy
Reacquired August 1945
RenamedDD-224
Recommissioned29 October 1945
Decommissioned23 May 1946
Stricken17 April 1946
FateSunk as a target, 24 May 1946
Japan
NamePatrol boat No.102 (Dai-102-Gō shōkaitei)[1]
Builder102nd Naval Construction Department at Surabaya
AcquiredFebruary 1943 (raised)
Commissioned20 September 1943
FateSurrendered, August 1945
General characteristics (as Clemson-class destroyer)
Class and typeClemson-class destroyer
Displacement1,215 long tons (1,234 t)
Length314 ft 5 in (95.83 m)
Beam31 ft 9 in (9.68 m)
Draft9 ft 4 in (2.84 m)
Propulsiongeared turbines
Speed35 knots (65 km/h)
Complement101 officers and enlisted
Armament
  • 4 ×
    4-inch (102 mm)
    ,
  • 1 ×
    3-inch (76 mm)
    ,
  • 12 ×
    21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
General characteristics (as Patrol Boat No. 102[2])
Class and typenone
Displacement1,680 long tons (1,707 t) standard [3]
Length98.70 m (323 ft 10 in) overall [3]
Draft3.50 m (11 ft 6 in) [3]
Propulsion
  • 2 × Parsons all geared steam turbines [4]
  • 4 × White-Foster water tube boilers [4]
  • 2 shafts, 14,000 shp (10,000 kW) [3]
Speed26.0 knots (29.9 mph; 48.2 km/h) [3]
Endurance2,400 nautical miles @ 12 knots (4,400 km @ 22 km/h) [3]
Complement110 (September 1943)
Sensors and
processing systems
  • 1 × Type 93 active sonar (replaced 1 × Type 3 active sonar on March 1945),
  • 1 × Type 93 hydrophone
  • (added on September 1944)
Electronic warfare
& decoys
  • 1 × 22-Gō surface search radar
  • (added on March 1945)
  • 1 × 13-Gō early warning radar
  • (added on May 1945)
Armament

USS Stewart (DD-224) was a

Charles Stewart
. Scuttled in port at Surabaya, Java, she was later raised by the Japanese and commissioned as Patrol Boat No. 102. She came back under American control in 1945 after the occupation of Japan.

Design and construction

The Clemson-class was a modified version of the previous Wickes class (itself a faster version of the Caldwell class) with more fuel, as many of the Wickes-class had poor fuel economy and hence endurance. Like the Wickes-class ships, the Clemsonss had flush decks and four funnels and were ordered in very large numbers to meet the US Navy's need for ships to counter German U-boats as well as to operate with the fleet.[7][8]

Stewart was 314 ft 4+1⁄2 in (95.82 m)

draft of 9 ft 10 in (3.00 m) at full load. Displacement was 1,215 long tons (1,234 t) normal and 1,308 long tons (1,329 t) full load.[9] Four White-Forster water-tube boilers supplied steam at 412 °F (211 °C; 484 K) and 265 psi (1,830 kPa) to two sets of Parsons geared steam turbines, which in turn drove two propeller shafts.[9][10] The machinery was rated at 25,815 shp (19,250 kW), giving a design speed of 35 kn (40 mph; 65 km/h).[9] The ship had a designed endurance of 2,500 nmi (2,900 mi; 4,600 km) at 20 kn (23 mph; 37 km/h).[7]

Main gun armament consisted of four

3 inch (76 mm) 23 caliber anti-aircraft gun, while torpedo armament consisted of twelve 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. The ship had a crew of 7 officers and 124 enlisted men.[9]

Stewart was one of a batch of 25 Clemson-class destroyers ordered from

sea trials on 8 September 1920, making an average speed of 35.09 kn (40.38 mph; 64.99 km/h) during a four-hour full speed trial.[13] Stewart was delivered to the US Navy on 15 September 1920, and commissioned the same day.[12][14][15]

Service history

United States Navy

Between the wars

On commissioning, Stewart was assigned to Destroyer

Asiatic Fleet. She would not return to the US for 23 years.[12][16]

Stewart arrived at the Asiatic Fleet's base at

Great Kantō earthquake which had heavily damaged that city and Tokyo on 30 and 31 August.[12][18] Stewart left Chinese waters on 25 October 1923, arriving in the Philippines on 28 October, when she was docked down at Olongapo, with repair work continuing at Cavite until 18 November.[18]

In early 1924, Stewart carried out surveying operations using her echo sounder.[19] From 25 May to 16 June 1924, Stewart supported the flight of four US Army Douglas World Cruiser aircraft around the world, operating first in Japan and then at Shanghai.[12]

Between 1924 and 1928, there were outbreaks of anti-foreign disturbances at Shanghai and

Yangtze River and on the coast near Canton.[12][20] Further outbreaks of unrest on cites on the Yangtze in September 1926, associated with the Northern Expedition of the Kuomintang led to Stewart being ordered upriver, and on 5 September, she was on passage between Shanghai and Hankou with the destroyer Pope when the two destroyers were fire on from the shore, with two men aboard Stewart slightly wounded. The two American destroyers did not return fire on this occasion.[21] It was reported that all foreign steamers entering or leaving Hankou were being fired on by Kuomintang forces.[22] On 10 September, Stewart and the gunboat Palos and the minesweeper Pigeon when they came under rifle and artillery fire. This time, Stewart returned fire with rifles, machine guns and one 4-inch shell, which stopped the fire from shore.[21][23]

On 18 February 1927, Stewart and the destroyer

Wuhu, Nanking, Shanghai, and Chenglin.[12] On 27 March Stewart was on the way to Wuhu, when she was fired on, wounding three crewmen.[21] Stewart was in collision with the merchant ship SS Luen Ho while on passage down the Yangtze on 5 November 1927, with the destroyer suffering a dented side. She remained in Chinese waters until 14 January 1928.[21]

Stewart was off coast of China, near the

sloop HMS Sandwich and two Chinese barges. While Sandwich and one of the barges received little damage, the other barge lost a length of anchor chain, some of which ended up wound around Stewart's port propeller, which was badly damaged and required replacement.[26] Stewart remained at Shanghai until 12 May 1932.[12][26]

In January 1934, Stewart started an overhaul and repair period at Cavite alongside the Black Hawk, with work including inspecting and repairing the ship's port turbines.[27] A fire broke out aboard on 10 February 1934 which was quickly extinguished.[28] The overhaul continued into March, with Stewart demonstrating a speed of 32 kn (37 mph; 59 km/h) during post repair sea trials.[27] On 14 July 1934, Stewart dragged her anchor while at Chefoo, colliding with the Chinese warship Chuyku, but only sustained minor damage.[27]

After

Cavite Navy Yard for overhaul on 5 April 1940. Upon leaving the yard on 1 June, Stewart acted as plane guard vessel for seaplanes flying between Guam and the Philippines and then made a final tour of Chinese Yellow Sea ports from 7 July to 23 September 1940.[12] During 1941, she remained in the Philippines as the international situation worsened, carrying out patrols in Manila Bay and the southern Philippines.[31]

World War II

On 27 November 1941,[12][32][a] Admiral Thomas C. Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet, after receiving a war warning from the Chief of Naval Operations, ordered the major warships of the Asiatic Fleet to disperse to ports in the southern Philippines and the Dutch East Indies to minimise the potential for the fleet to be knocked out by Japanese air attack in the event of war, and to ease potential link up with Dutch forces. Stewart, along with the cruiser Marblehead and the destroyers Barker, Bulmer, Paul Jones and Parrott, was ordered to Tarakan in Borneo, arriving there on 29 November.[34][33] Stewart was still at Tarakan when news of the outbreak of hostilities with Japan arrived on 8 December.[12]

During the final weeks of 1941, she escorted naval auxiliaries from the Philippines to Port Darwin, Australia. On 9 January 1942 Stewart was one of five destroyers in an escort composed of the cruisers Boise and Marblehead, with the other destroyers Bulmer, Pope, Parrott, and Barker departing from Darwin to Surabaya escorting the transport Bloemfontein.[35] That transport had been part of the Pensacola Convoy and had left Brisbane 30 December 1941 with Army reinforcements composed of the 26th Field Artillery Brigade and Headquarters Battery, the 1st Battalion, 131st Field Artillery and supplies from that convoy destined for Java.[36]

On 30 January, Stewart joined Marblehead and sortied with her from

Java
.

Stewart joined Admiral Karel Doorman's striking force under the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command on 14 February for an attack on Japanese forces advancing along the northern coast of Sumatra. During the approach, Stewart had to back her engines to avoid a Dutch destroyer ahead of her which had run aground on a reef in Stolze Strait, and, on the following day, 15 February, she survived numerous air attacks in the Bangka Strait. Although they damaged no Allied ships, the air attacks convinced Admiral Doorman that further advance without air cover would be foolhardy, and the Allied force retired. Stewart was detached on 16 February to fuel at Ratai Bay in Sumatra.

Admiral Doorman's forces were scattered when the Japanese landed on Bali on 19 February, and he threw his ships against the enemy in three groups on the night of 19 and 20 February in the Battle of Badung Strait. Stewart was lead ship in the second group and, in several brief but furious night engagements, came under extremely accurate fire from Japanese destroyers. Her boats were shot away, her torpedo racks and galley were hit, and a crippling shot hit the destroyer aft below her water line, opening her seams and flooding the steering engine room. However, the steering engine continued to operate under 2 feet (610 mm) of water; and the destroyer was able to maintain her station in column and return to Surabaya the next morning.

Scuttling

Stewart, as the most severely damaged ship, was the first to enter the floating drydock at Surabaya on 22 February. However, she was inadequately supported in the dock, and as the dock rose, the ship fell off the keel blocks onto her side in 12 feet (3.7 m) of water, bending her propeller shafts and causing further hull damage. With the port under enemy air attack and in danger of falling to the enemy, the ship could not be repaired. Responsibility for the destruction of the ship was given to naval authorities ashore, and Stewart's last crew members left the embattled port on the afternoon of 22 February.

Subsequently, demolition charges were set off within the ship, a Japanese bomb hit amidships further damaged her, and before the port was evacuated on 2 March, the drydock containing her was scuttled. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 25 March 1942 and was soon assigned to a new destroyer escort, USS Stewart (DE-238).

Imperial Japanese Navy

Later in the war, American pilots began reporting an American warship operating far within enemy waters. The ship had a Japanese trunked funnel but the lines of her four-piper hull were unmistakable. After almost a year under water, Stewart had been raised by the Japanese in February 1943 and commissioned into the

Hiro Bay
near Kure.

Return to United States Navy and final destruction

DD-224 after recapture from the Japanese Navy and recommissioning in the USN
DD-224 sinking after use as a target ship

In an emotional ceremony on 29 October 1945, the ship was recommissioned in the United States Navy at Kure. Although officially called simply DD-224, she was nicknamed by her crew "RAMP-224," standing for "Recovered Allied Military Personnel". On the trip home, her engines gave out near Guam, and she arrived at

San Francisco, California
in early March 1946 at the end of a towline. DD-224 was again struck from the Navy list on 17 April 1946, decommissioned on 23 May 1946, and sunk a day later off San Francisco as a target for aircraft.

Five Navy F6F Hellcat fighters[37] hit her with 18 rockets and thousands of rounds of 50 calibre ammunition but she refused to go down despite the damage. She was finally sunk by USS PC-799 which finished her off with twelve 40-mm and 17 three-inch shells fired from a range of 300 yards.[38]

Awards

Notes

  1. ^ 24 November according to Klar[33]

Citations

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-306-81069-7
    .
  2. ^ Characteristics for Japanese career are from documentation provided by the Japanese to the United States when the ship was returned to the U.S. Navy on 15 October 1945.
  3. ^ a b c d e f JCAHR (C08011350100), Japanese text: p. 3–14, English text: p. 15–36
  4. ^ a b Ships of the World (1996), p. 104
  5. ^ Rekishi Gunzō, p. 140
  6. ^ Rekishi Gunzō, p. 148–149
  7. ^ a b Gardiner & Gray 1985, pp. 124–125.
  8. ^ Friedman 1982, pp. 39–42.
  9. ^ a b c d Klar 1988a, p. 380.
  10. ^ Lenton 1971, pp. 22–23.
  11. ^ Klar 1988a, pp. 376–377.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Stewart (Destroyer No. 224)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
  13. ^ Klar 1988a, pp. 377, 379.
  14. ^ Klar 1988a, p. 379.
  15. ^ a b c Klar 1988b, p. 385.
  16. ^ Klar 1988b, pp. 385–386.
  17. ^ Klar 1988b, p. 384.
  18. ^ a b Klar 1988b, p. 387.
  19. ^ Klar 1988b, pp. 387–388.
  20. ^ Klar 1988b, p. 389.
  21. ^ a b c d e Klar 1988b, p. 391.
  22. ^ "More Gunboats Fired On. American Sailors Wounded". The Times. No. 44374. 11 September 1926. p. 10.
  23. ^ "U.S. Gunboats Engaged". The Times. No. 44376. 14 September 1926. p. 14.
  24. ^ "I.—Steamers & Motorships: Missing" (PDF). Statistical Summary of ships of 100 tons and upwards, Totally Lost, Condemned, &c., during the year 1927. London: Lloyds Register of Shipping. July 1928. p. 6. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  25. ^ "Warships at Shanghai: Vessels of Eight Nations". The Times. No. 44538. 24 March 1927. p. 13.
  26. ^ a b c Klar 1988b, p. 392.
  27. ^ a b c Klar 1988b, p. 393.
  28. ^ Corkle, Annie B. (14 February 1934). "Cavite Notes". The Tribune. Vol. IX, no. 270. Manila. p. 9. Retrieved 13 March 2022 – via Trove.
  29. ^ Klar 1988b, p. 394.
  30. ^ Klar 1988b, p. 395.
  31. ^ Klar 1988b, pp. 395–396.
  32. ^ Cox 2014, p. 38.
  33. ^ a b Klar 1989, p. 139.
  34. ^ Cox 2014, pp. 38–39.
  35. ^ Gill 1957, p. 531.
  36. ^ Masterson 1949, p. 8.
  37. ^ Staff, "The End of a Unique Career", All Hands, the Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin, Washington, D.C., July 1946, Number 353, page 50.
  38. ^ Associated Press, "Tough Old Ship Sent to Bottom – Heavier Guns Used After Rockets Fail", The San Bernardino Sun, San Bernardino, California, Sunday 26 May 1946, Volume 52, page 1.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

37°44′56″N 122°43′44″W / 37.749°N 122.729°W / 37.749; -122.729

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