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| Stewart (DD-224) steaming at high speed, circa in the 1920s or 1930s. |
by Robert S. Parkin
During the late morning hours of 20 February 1942, a ragged flotilla composed of four U.S. destroyers and a Dutch light cruiser straggled into the tropical port of Surabaya, Java, after having engaged in a fierce hit-and-run clash with four Japanese destroyers in the Badoeng Strait. Although the enemy had sustained a severe thrashing, the cruiser Tromp and USS Stewart had not escaped from the hotly contested skirmish unscathed. Tromp's stern was mangled by ten direct hits and Stewart, besides suffering topside damage, was holed below the waterline in her after steering engine room with her steering engine two feet under water.
Since mid-January, the defenders of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) had been waging a futile war against the armed might of the Japanese juggernaut pressing down relentlessly, and with little opposition, through the Malay barrier. Needless to say, the combined navies of the American, British, Dutch and Australian forces (ABDA-Float), composed of thirty-two surface combatant ships, were no match against the Japanese armada of seventy warships, including aircraft carriers, plus an unknown number of aircraft and submarines. Of the forty-seven Allied submarines, twenty-seven were American, however, owing to their faulty torpedoes, only an old, creaky "S" boat, S-37 had succeeded in sinking one destroyer (IJN Natsushio). And, except for a daring and successful night assault by four U.S. destroyers against a dozen anchored transports in Balikpapan Harbor, Borneo, on 24 January, every mission undertaken by the Allied forces had thus far ended in utter disaster or had to be aborted.
It can be truly said that this combined effort was doomed from the start. To begin with, there was the language barrier between the Netherlanders and their English-speaking Allies. This, of course, resulted in the misinterpretation of orders and signals, therefore causing delays and confusion to the execution of maneuvers. Then there were the lack of repair facilities and logistics. There were not enough shipyards or repair or supply ships to effect repairs or replenish the American ships with sorely-needed ammunition, torpedoes, food or spare parts. As a matter of fact, the only available U.S. repair ship was the USS Black Hawk and her larder was virtually depleted. As an old "China Hand" and a survivor from Destroyer Squadron 29 grimly remarked later:
We were scraping the bottom of the barrel for food stores. As for repairs, most of our run-down destroyers got along on nothing but bailing wire and chewing gum. Everyone improvised. But it was difficult to improvise rest and recuperation. We could hardly find any sack time. Relaxation? Forget it! We were lucky to get a cup of coffee!
For a typical example, consider the plight of the USS Edsall (DD-219). While on escort duty, she made a depth charge attack upon a submarine during which time one of her depth charges had detonated prematurely. The shock resulted in damaging one of her engines and warped her propeller shaft. A Stateside shipyard would have repaired the damage within two weeks, but this was the Dutch East Indies and, as a result, Edsall was compelled to carry out her operations, thumping along as best she could until her loss.
Such were the circumstances facing Stewart as she limped into Surabaya on this hot and sultry Sunday morning. By this time, the port had been bombed on several occasions, thus resulting in most of the native help fleeing inland to the safety of their villages and those few that had remained, proved to be somewhat incompetent, slovenly and untrustworthy in their work. This was soon realized when Stewart was fortunate enough to find a floating drydock owned by a civilian shipyard. In their haste, they failed to set the crippled destroyer properly upon the keel blocks. Consequently, when the drydock was raised, the ship toppled over on her port side with a resounding crash, thus inflicting additional damage to her hull and port propeller shaft.
Efforts to re-float and right the destroyer were hampered by constant air attacks. Then on the 24th, the enemy struck in an all-out raid against shipping in the harbor and the port facilities. The Dutch destroyer Banckert and a Dutch submarine were blown to the bottom. Warehouses and piers were reduced to flaming rubble. And the Stewart, lying helplessly on her side, like a beached whale, took a bomb hit that, as far as the U.S. Navy was concerned, finished her.
Then on the evening of the 28th, the Battle of the Java Sea exploded which ended in a disastrous defeat for the ABDA navies. On the following day, 1 March, preparations were put into motion to evacuate the Dutch East Indies. To prevent Stewart's capture by the enemy, a demolition team blew her and the drydock up. On the 2nd, the remnants of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet and the British and Australian forces were fleeing for Australia or Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
Before we proceed any further, let us go back in time and briefly scan the Stewart's career before her "death" and, was we will see, her remarkable "resurrection."
Commissioned on 15 September 1920, Stewart, a 1,125-ton flush-decked four-stacker, served with the Atlantic Destroyer Flotilla until her assignment to the Asiatic Fleet in August 1922, whose primary mission was to protect American lives and interests throughout the Far East. Subsequently, Stewart and her sister destroyers were, on many occasions, dispatched to "show the flag" and if necessary, land Marines wherever and whenever civil unrest or anti-foreign sentiments threatened the well-being of Americans and other nationals as well. And yet, more often than not, the ships of the Asiatic Fleet were on hand to offer assistance and provide relief for the victims of national disasters. Take, for example, the devastating earthquake that had struck and leveled Tokyo and Yokohama in September 1923. Stewart and several other ships were rushed to Yokosuka embarked with medical teams and loaded down with medical supplies, food and clothing, with their crews assisting the medics in their efforts to render aid and comfort to the survivors of the catastrophe.
If China was in a turmoil during the 1920s, the 1930s were just as cataclysmic for the men of the Asiatic Fleet. Not only was this nation in the throes of a civil war (Nationalists against Communists), the Japanese added more fuel to the fire by invading Manchuria in the early years of the 1930s and eventually stormed over the Chinese border, which, as we know, resulted in a full-scale war, during which time the Nationalists and Communists united as one to subdue the common enemy. Consequently, these adverse conditions resulted in the evacuation of American citizens to safer areas in southern China, however, it was only a temporary haven, for the Japanese were swiftly overrunning and conquering Chinese territory like a whirlwind.
Then came the sinking of the U.S. gunboat Panay in the Yangtze River in December 1937 by Japanese aircraft. Despite the overtures of apologies by the Japanese, the incident did not set too well with the United States. Finally, toward the end of 1939, the last group of American businessmen and their families were evacuated from China to either the Philippines or the United States. Shortly afterwards, the Asiatic Fleet shifted its operations to the Philippines, where Stewart and other units of the fleet commenced neutrality patrols throughout the Philippines.
As international relations began to deteriorate between the U.S. and Japan in late 1941, Stewart and other units of the Asiatic Fleet were dispatched to the Dutch East Indies to team up with Dutch, British and Australian warships for a combined battle exercise on 27 November. Then on 8 December, while Stewart was fueling at Tarakan Island, word was received of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Subsequently, the Asiatic Fleet was immediately put on a wartime footing and Stewart was ordered to Manila, where for the remainder of December she was assigned to patrol duties outside of Manila Bay.
With Manila and shipping in the harbor suffering from endless bombings day and night, the commander-in-chief of the Asiatic Fleet, Rear Admiral Thomas C. Hart, had no other choice but to evacuate the Philippines and carry on the fight in the Dutch East Indies with the Dutch, British and Australian forces. However, Stewart as well as other destroyers did not immediately join up with the ABDA-Float, but was temporarily assigned to escorting transports and other auxiliary vessels embarked with evacuees to Australia and later went on to serve on patrol duty in northern Australian waters.
Then in late January 1942, Stewart commenced her duties with the ABDA-Float and on 4 February, fired her guns for the first time in anger. The occasion was an attempted intervention of an enemy troop convoy sighted steaming toward Makassar City, Celebes.
The strike force was composed of the Dutch light cruisers De Ruyter (flagship of Rear Admiral Karel W. Doorman) and Tromp; Dutch destroyers Van Ghent, Banckert and Piet Hien; U.S. heavy cruiser Houston and light cruiser Marblehead and U.S. destroyers Stewart (flagship of DesDiv [Destroyer Division] 58, Commander T. H. Binford, and skippered by Lieutenant Commander Harold P. Smith), Barker, Bulmer and John D. Edwards.
Then at 0949, catastrophe struck. As the force was approaching Madoera Strait, a flock of some thirty-five bombers plummeted out of the clouds, their bombs raining death and destruction upon the cruisers. Four courageous, lumbering U.S. Navy Catalinas were promptly sent down in flames when they tried to intercept. Admiral Doorman ordered the ships to scatter and it was every ship for itself. It wasn't long before more and more aircraft had joined the fray, their pilots venting their hatred against the frantic, zig-zagging and cork-screwing cruisers. Without sufficient anti-aircraft batteries and lack of air cover, the force was doomed. Although the destroyers had contributed their share of anti-aircraft fire, none of them had scored any hits.
Houston had taken a savage hit in her after turret which resulted in the killing of fifty officers and men and wounding twenty others. Marblehead was transformed into a molten wreck. Bombs had struck her on the stern, causing serious damage to her steering gear and rudder; others crashed into her wardroom and sick bay, and near misses tore open her fuel tanks and sprung her hull plates, letting in the sea. Elsewhere throughout the battered vessel, fires were raging both topside and below.
Smothered in a pall of smoke and flame and with her rudder jammed hard to starboard, the hapless cruiser began to steam in a wobbly circle, down by the bow and began to take on a precarious list to starboard. Fortunately, by this time, the enemy had dispersed, thus allowing her damage control parties to take measures to subdue the fires, stem the flooding and correct the list and straightening out her rudder. Realizing it would be foolhardy to press on, Admiral Doorman ordered the group to retire, while he and Stewart's division remained behind to escort the crippled cruiser to Tjilatjap, Java.
On 15 February, Stewart took part in another mission, which again had to be aborted. En route to intercept an invasion convoy bearing down upon Palembang, Sumatra, Doorman's force was set upon by a swarm of aircraft. Although none of the ships were hit, the U.S. destroyers Bulmer and Barker were severely damaged by near misses. Consequently, Doorman was forced to retire and returned to Tjilatjap.
By 18 February, Admiral Doorman's forces were widely scattered with Stewart and her division fueling at Ratai Bay, Sumatra, the British cruisers as well as the damaged Houston on convoy duty hither and yon, not to mention the loss of Marblehead, Barker and Bulmer, now limping to the U.S. and Australia, respectively, plus the loss of the service of one of his destroyers that had run aground during the sortie of the 15th.
Now, on this date a Japanese convoy was sighted off-loading troops on the southern coast of Bali in the Badoeng Strait. Gathering up whatever ships he could muster, Doorman devised a plan to dispatch a three-wave assault to the site with the hopes of disrupting the landings and raising havoc amongst the shipping with gunfire and torpedoes. The second wave, composed of Stewart, Parrott, Pillsbury and John D. Edwards, were to rendezvous with the Dutch cruiser Tromp (Commander J. B. De Meester) off the southeastern tip of Java on the evening of the 19th and were scheduled to strike within two hours after Doorman's attack. The third wave, made up of a group of Dutch PT boats, were supposed to mop up the remnants of the convoy.
The details of the first foray will not be discussed here, however, I will briefly scan the events that had occurred during this short but vicious engagement between Doorman's two cruisers, his destroyer Piet Hien and the two U.S. destroyers John D. Ford and Pope against two Japanese destroyers, Asashio and Oshio.
To begin with, as Doorman was departing from Tjilatjap, he had the misfortune of losing one of his destroyers which had struck a reef as it was leaving the harbor. Then, he was further disappointed upon his arrival at the landing site to discover that the bulk of the convoy had long since upped anchor and was long gone, with only the two aforementioned destroyers and a lone cargoman to contend with.
Gamely, the enemy destroyers charged in and challenged the intruders and a heated slug-fest ensued, with both sides employing gunfire and torpedoes. In the melee, the cruiser Java was hit on her stern by several 5-inch shells and Piet Hien was sunk. One of the U.S. destroyers had managed to score a torpedo hit on the cargoman and, in the darkness and amidst the smoke haze from the smoke screens laid down by the destroyers, Asashio had mistaken her sister for one of the American destroyers and poured a hail of shells into her, who immediately answered in kind. At this juncture, the Americans decided to break off the action and high-tailed it out of there and left the enemy behind, still pounding the hell out of each other. The time was 2310 and the hour was drawing near for De Meester's group to come plunging into Badoeng Strait.
At 0135 hours, while the enemy destroyers were licking their wounds, Stewart with her sisters and Tromp following in their wakes at 25 knots, dashed into the strait. The enemy ships were barely visible against the black backdrop of Bali, however, Commander Binford ordered an immediate torpedo attack. At 0136 hours, fifteen "tin fish" were streaking and humming towards their targets. The seconds ticked by. Nothing happened. All had missed or were deep runners, or worse, were "dumb-headed" duds. Alerted by the ominous, creamy wakes, the enemy destroyers dug in their heels and bolted forward to do battle.
Both destroyers converged upon the Stewart off her starboard beam and a warning shout from one of Stewart's lookouts spurred the destroyer into action. Her searchlight was switched on, and simultaneously, she let fly with a brace of torpedoes and a barrage of 4-inch shells. Astern of her, Edwards attempted a torpedo strike with two of them hot and running, with two others jammed in their tubes. Then Stewart got it from a ricocheting shell which killed one man and seriously wounded her executive officer. This hit was swiftly followed by a succession of hits that mangled her upper works, uprooted one of her torpedo mounts and tore a hole below the waterline aft, letting in the sea and flooded her after steering engine room. However, despite the devastating damage, Stewart still kept going. Meanwhile, her sisters were delivering severe punishment upon the feisty Japanese destroyers.
Then Tromp joined in and clobbered Oshio's bridge with 6-inch shells and in turn was hit on her stern with ten savage 5-inch hits. At this point, the Japanese seemed to have lost contact and De Meester ordered the group to retire northward and race for Surabaya. However, our boys were not pout of the woods yet, for as they were leaving Lombok Strait, they ran headlong into two more destroyers that were en route to assist their beleaguered sisters. These were the Michishio and Arashio. The time was 0219 hours and the enemy concentrated their fire upon Stewart. Fortunately, no hits were scored against the already wounded destroyer. More shells and torpedoes were flung, with none of them hitting their marks, but Pillsbury staggered the Michishio with a salvo of 4-inch shells and before she could recover from the shock, Tromp "tromped" her with a cyclone of 6-inch shells that stopped her in her tracks, leaving her with over ninety personnel killed, wounded or dying. Arashio decided not to antagonize her foe any further and went to the aid of her crippled sister. Thus ended the Battle of the Badoeng Strait, however, again the event almost ended in disaster for the Parrott when her steering gear jammed hard to port and narrowly escaped piling up on a reef. From there on, the group proceeded on to Surabaya without incident, and, as was established earlier, the eventual "loss" of the Stewart.
The war pressed on, with the Japanese well entrenched in the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines and swiftly establishing a foothold in the Solomons. Then came the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. After a hard and tenuous struggle, they were routed out of Guadalcanal by the combined efforts of the U.S. military forces. By the closing months of 1944, the Americans had established a grip on the Philippines, with the bulk of the once-proud Imperial Navy of Japan scattered hither and yon on the bottom of the seas surrounding the southern islands of the Philippines. True, Japan still had the battleship Yamato, a 76,000-ton giantess, sporting nine 18-inch guns, a handful of cruisers and destroyers and an assortment of old battleships, patrol craft, aircraft and a carrier or two (without well-trained pilots) to defend the home islands. However, they were not an immediate threat to the U.S. Navy.
Then, as the naval task forces began their air strikes against the industrial complexes throughout Japan, the pilots began reporting the sighting of a strange vessel, probably a destroyer, with seemingly American lines, cruising about the home waters. At one time, a group of Army pilots reported the bombing of a destroyer while staging a raid on shipping in Mokpo Harbor, Korea. Despite her sporting a tripod foremast and three smoke stacks, of which the forward one was "trunked" and shaped like a boot, these common Japanese characteristics did not belie the fact that there was something "American" about this odd-appearing vessel. Then came the "Bombs," and the war was over.
In the weeks that followed the Japanese surrender, the U.S. Navy occupied the numerous naval bases throughout Japan and on 15 October 1945, in the Kure-Hiroshima area, they discovered their "mystery ship" huddled in a nest of rust-encrusted cargo ships and dilapidated fishing trawlers. There she was, just as she was described by the scores of pilots who had seen her. There was no doubt about it-that trunked forward stack and tripod mast, plus the additional armament said they were "made in Japan." However, that plumb bow, flush-decked hull, those two after stacks and the after deck house shouted "made in the good old U.S.A."! After boarding her and a closer inspection, there was no doubt about her origin or who she was. She was none other than the old USS Stewart (DD-224), the old battle-scarred veteran, whose bones were left to rot and rust in the mud at Surabaya in March 1942.
After lying partially submerged for almost a year, Stewart was salvaged, raised and temporarily patched up and towed to Japan where she was refurbished, re-armed with two 3-inch guns and an anti-aircraft battery, and, to prevent her from being attacked by friendly forces, the forward stack was necessarily trunked and raked, with the inclusion of the tripod mast. Commissioned on 20 September 1943 as Shokai-Tei (Patrol Vessel) No. 102, she operated with the Japanese Southwest Fleet on escort duty until her arrival at Kure for repairs and alterations in November 1944. She was then assigned to conduct patrol duties in the Sea of Japan and off the Korean coast where, as was previously mentioned, she was bombed and strafed by USAAF aircraft. Back in Kure on 30 April 1945, she was assigned to the Kure Naval district where she remained on patrol duty until the end of hostilities.
By all intents and purposes, this old, battle-hardened veteran should have been scrapped or left to rot where she stood. However, in a sentimental gesture, it was decided to spruce her up and re-commission her into the U.S. Navy and with a volunteer crew (and there were scores of willing hands to do so), sail her back to her homeland after an absence of twenty-three years. Consequently, in an emotional ceremony, the seemingly indestructible Stewart was placed in commission on 29 October 1945 as DD-224, however, her crew affectionately dubbed her RAMP-224, which stood for "Recovered Allied Military Personnel."
Shortly afterwards, with her "homeward bound pendant" hoisted up to her truck and snapping in the brisk wind, the Stewart stood out of Kure for the long voyage home. Unfortunately, the cruise was a virtual nightmare for all hands. Not only did she suffer constant engine breakdowns, she was also crawling with rats and every type of vermin known to man. Eventually the latter was conquered with the latest insecticides and poisons, but the mechanical difficulties continued to plague her, despite her layovers for repairs at Guam and Pearl Harbor. Finally, her engines gave out a short distance out of San Francisco and suffered the ignominious fate of having to pass under the Golden Gate Bridge tethered to the end of a towline in early March 1946.
Yet, in spite of all the difficulties the crew had endured, their spirits were high and anticipated that the destroyer would be preserved as a memorial. As a matter of fact, the men had labored to refurbish and restore several compartments and left others in their Japanese styling. However, much to their disappointment, it was not to be. For on 17 April 1946, the Stewart was, for the second time, stricken from the Navy Register and decommissioned on 23 May. On the following day she was towed out to sea and laid to rest under a violent deluge of airborne rockets and bombs by naval aircraft.
The Author
Born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1923, Robert S. Parkin enlisted in the U.S. Navy in February 1941. Assigned to a new destroyer upon his completion of "boot" training, he saw escort duty in the U-boat infested waters of the North Atlantic before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After serving on two more destroyers, he was transferred to an attack cargo ship (AKA) which sailed for the Pacific in the summer of 1944. Here he participated in the landings on Leyte, Lingayen Gulf and Subic Bay.
Mustered out after the war, he soon re-enlisted and remained in the Navy until his transfer into the Fleet Reserve in 1961. During those years he was on hand during the Communists' takeover of China, with his destroyer assisting in the evacuation of American citizens from Shanghai. Later, his ship was instrumental in the rescuing of and evacuating the American Consul General and his family from Tsingtao.
Just before the outbreak of the Korean conflict, he had been assigned to shore duty as a recruit instructor. As a result, he did not get into any action until the closing days of the war. Back on destroyers in 1955, he remained in the destroyer force until he was separated from active duty.
A bachelor throughout his naval career, he settled down in New Jersey, married his childhood sweetheart and now has two sons. Since 1962 he has been employed with a well-established paper manufacturer in northern New Jersey as a stationery engineer.
History of the USS Stewart DD-224
USS Stewart (DD-224) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was the second ship named for Rear Admiral Charles Stewart. Scuttled in a port, 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.
Stewart was laid down on 9 September 1919 by William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia; launched on 4 March 1920; sponsored by Mrs. Margaretta Stewart Stevens, granddaughter of Rear Admiral Stewart; and commissioned on 15 September 1920, Lieutenant S. G. Lamb in command.
After a year of coastal operations with a reserve division, Stewart joined Destroyer Squadron, Atlantic, on 12 October 1921. She participated in fleet exercises in the Caribbean from 12 January to 22 April 1922; and, after repairs, departed Newport, Rhode Island, on 20 June and proceeded, via the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, to the Philippines for service in the Asiatic Fleet. She was destined not to return to the U.S. for 23 years.
Arriving at Chefoo, China, on 26 August, Stewart entered the routine of the Asiatic Fleet, conducting training exercises from bases at Chefoo and Tsingtao in the summer and Manila in the winter and making calls at Chinese ports during the transit in each direction. Her routine was broken briefly between 6 and 21 September 1923 by a voyage to Yokosuka, Japan, to relieve victims of the Great Kantō earthquake which had heavily damaged that city and Tokyo on 30 and 31 August.
From 25 May to 16 June, Stewart supported the flight of four Army aircraft around the world, operating first in Japan and then at Shanghai.
Between 1924 and 1928, there were outbreaks of anti-foreign disturbances at Shanghai and Canton. Stewart transported marines to Shanghai in January 1925, and during the next years, spent periods augmenting the normal gunboat patrols on the Yangtze River and on the coast near Canton. She was at Shanghai on 24 March 1927 when Chinese Communist troops attacked foreigners at Nanking, and for the next three and a half months, the destroyer was stationed at Wuhu, Nanking, Shanghai, and Chenglin to protect American nationals and shipping along the Yangtze. She was also on the China coast when the Japanese launched an air and sea attack on Shanghai in late January 1932, and protected Americans at Swatow and Amoy from 1 to 3 and 9 to 24 February and at Shanghai from 26 February to 23 May. After full-scale war between Japan and China broke out in 1937 Stewart was again often on station in Chinese ports, at Tsingtao and Shanghai from 15 August to 18 December 1937, from 21 February to 21 March 1938, and from 3 June to 4 September 1939. On the latter date, after the outbreak of war in Europe, she was ordered south for patrol duties in the Philippines, which she continued until entering the 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. During 1941, she remained in the Philippines as the international situation worsened; and, on 27 November, she was ordered, along with the other major surface combatants of the Asiatic Fleet, to the Dutch East Indies.
Stewart was at Tarakan Roads, Borneo, with other American and Dutch ships, when news of hostilities with Japan arrived on 8 December. 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. 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.
On 30 January, Stewart joined Marblehead and sortied with her from Bunda Roads on 4 February to intercept Japanese forces at the south entrance to the Macassar Strait. However, Marblehead was badly damaged by air attacks during the day, and Stewart escorted her back to the base at Tjilatjap, 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.
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).
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 Imperial Japanese Navy on 20 September 1943 as Patrol Boat No. 102. She was armed with two 3 inch guns and operated with the Japanese Southwest Area Fleet on escort duty. On 23 August 1944, under command of Lieutenant Tomoyoshi Yoshima, she operated in consort with the anti-submarine vessel CD-22, which sank Harder with all hands, using depth charges, although PB-102 was not directly involved in this action. In November 1944, PB-102 arrived at Kure for repairs. There her antiaircraft battery was augmented, and she was given a light tripod foremast. She then sailed for the Southwest Pacific, but the American reconquest of the Philippines blocked her way. On 28 April 1945, still under control of the Southwest Area Fleet, she was bombed and damaged by United States Army aircraft at Mokpo, Korea. She was transferred on 30 April to the control of the Kure Navy District, and in August 1945, was found by American occupation forces laid up in Hiro Bay near Kure.
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.
Name: USS Stewart
Namesake: Charles Stewart
Builder: William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Laid down: 9 September 1919
Launched: 4 March 1920
Sponsored by: Mrs. Margaretta Stewart Stevens
Commissioned: 15 September 1920
Struck: 25 March 1942
Identification: DD-224
Honors and awards: 2 battle stars
Fate:
Scuttled at Surabaya, Java, 2 March 1942
Later raised and commissioned into Imperial Japanese Navy
Reacquired: August 1945
Renamed: DD-224
Recommissioned: 29 October 1945
Decommissioned: 23 May 1946
Struck: 17 April 1946
Fate: Sunk as a target, 24 May 1946
General Characteristics (as Clemson-class Destroyer)
Class and type: Clemson-class destroyer
Displacement: 1,215 short tons (1,102 t)
Length: 314 ft 5 in (95.83 m)
Beam: 31 ft 9 in (9.68 m)
Draft: 9 ft 4 in (2.84 m)
Propulsion: geared turbines
Speed: 35 knots (65 km/h)
Complement: 101 officers and enlisted
Armament:
4 × 4-inch (102 mm)
1 × 3-inch (76 mm)
12 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Japan
Name: Patrol boat No.102 (Dai-102-Gō shōkaitei)
Builder: 102nd Naval Construction Department at Surabaya
Acquired: February 1943 (raised)
Commissioned: 20 September 1943
Fate: Surrendered, August 1945
General characteristics (as Patrol Boat No. 102)
Class and type: none
Displacement: 1,680 long tons (1,707 t) standard
Length: 98.70 m (323 ft 10 in) overall
Draft: 3.50 m (11 ft 6 in)
Propulsion:
2 × Parsons all geared steam turbines
4 × White-Foster water tube boilers
2 shafts, 14,000 shp (10,000 kW)
Speed: 26.0 knots (29.9 mph; 48.2 km/h)
Endurance: 2,400 nautical miles @ 12 knots (4,400 km @ 22 km/h)
Complement: 110 (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 and decoys:
1 × 22-Gō surface search radar (added on March 1945
1 × 13-Gō early warning radar (added on May 1945)
Armament September 1943:
2 × 3-inch (76 mm) guns (Dutch)
2 × 12.7 mm (0.50 in) machine guns (Dutch)
2 × 6.5 mm 11th Year type machine guns
72 × Type 95 depth charges
Armament June 1945 (final):
2 × 76.2 mm (3.00 in) L/40 3rd Year type AA guns
14 × 25 mm Type 96 AA guns
4 × 13 mm Type 93 AA guns
2 × 6.5 mm 11th Year type machine guns
4 × 450 mm (18 in) Type 2 torpedoes
72 × Type 2 depth charges
Awards
China Service Medal
American Defense Service Medal with "FLEET" clasp
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two battle stars
World War II Victory Medal
Navy Occupation Medal with "ASIA" clasp
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| Charles Stewart was born at Philadelphia, Pa., on 28 July 1778. He went to sea at the age of thirteen as a cabin boy and rose through the grades to become master of a merchantman. During the Quasi-War with France, Stewart was commissioned a lieutenant in the United States Navy on 9 March 1798 and joined the frigate United States for a cruise in the West Indies. He took command of the schooner Experiment on 16 July 1800 and soon captured two armed French vessels and freed several captured American ships. After brief command of Chesapeake in 1801 and service in Constellation in 1802, Stewart sailed to the Mediterranean in command of the brig Siren. There he participated in the destruction of Philadelphia after her capture by Tripoli, helped to maintain the blockade of Tripoli, and distinguished himself in assaults on the enemy in August and September 1804. After the war, he participated in a show of force at Tunis and returned home as captain in 1806. On the outbreak of war in 1812, Stewart commanded, successively, Argus, Hornet, and Constellation. But, as the latter was closely blockaded in Norfolk, he took command of Constitution at Boston in 1813. He made two brilliant cruises in her between 1813 and 1815. The frigate captured HMS Cyane and HMS Levant on 20 February 1815. Stewart's later service included command of a squadron in the Mediterranean from 1816 to 1820 and of one in the Pacific from 1820 to 1824. He served as a Naval Commissioner from 1830 to 1832 and commanded the Philadelphia Navy Yard from 1838 to 1841, in 1846, and again from 1854 to 1861. By a bill passed on 2 March 1859, Congress made Stewart "senior flag officer," an office created for him in recognition of his distinguished and meritorious service. He became rear admiral on the retired list on 16 July 1862, and he died at Bordentown, N.J., on 6 November 1869. |
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| Undated, location unknown. As she appeared during her tour in the Asiatic fleet. |
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| Undated, Stewart (DD 224) starboard side to tender with sister destroyers Pope (DD 225), Pillsbury (DD 227), Ford (DD 228), Truxton (DD 229), and Peary (DD 226) nested outboard. The tender is almost certainly the USS Whitney (AD-4). |
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| Undated, as part of the Asiatic Fleet. |
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| Undated, as part of the Asiatic Fleet. |
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| Undated, in drydock in Shanghai, China. |
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| Undated, in drydock in Shanghai, China. |
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| Undated, location unknown. |
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| Undated, USS Bulmer (DD-222), USS Stewart (DD-224), USS Parrott (DD-218) and USS Edsall (DD-219) alongside the USS Melille (AD-2). |
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| Circa 1924-1925, two brothers named Stewart who served on the USS Stewart. |
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| USS Black Hawk (AD-9) in Chefoo, China circa 1934-1939. The USS Heron (AM-10) is alongside the pier. The four destroyers are (from left to right): USS Edsall (DD-219); USS Bulmer (DD-222); USS Parrott (DD-218); and USS Stewart (DD-224). |
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| The Ship's Crew on 14 July 1934. |
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| Stewart survived the Badoeng Strait action and was placed in dry dock at Soerabaja. She was knocked off her keel blocks during an air raid (As seen here) and later scuttled in place by American forces. The Japanese were able to salvage her and she operated with their Navy until captured at war's end. |
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| The Imperial Japanese Navy Patrol Boat # 102 (ex-USS Stewart, DD-224) at Kure, on 12 March 1945. |
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| USS Stewart (DD-224) after her recapture in San Francisco Bay in March 1946. |
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| USS Stewart (DD-224) after her recapture. |
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| The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Stewart (DD-224) under tow on 24 May 1946, just before she was expended as a target. Note that her Japanese radar antennas have been removed from atop the ship's pilothouse and abaft her foremast. The Japanese flag painted amidships reflects Stewart's 1943-1945 service as the Japanese Navy's Patrol Boat 102. She was recovered by the U.S. Navy after the end of World War II and recommissioned as USS DD-224 for the voyage back to the United States. |
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| Stewart (DD-224) sinking after use as a target ship off San Francisco, on 25 May 1946. Stewart had been scuttled at Surabaya, Java, on 2 March 1942. The ship was raised by the Japanese and repaired, renamed Patrol Boat No.102. It survived the war and was surrendered by Japan at Kure and returned to U.S. service as DD-224 on 29 October 1945. |
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