Stewart--Not Jimmy

I had a decidedly humorous event happen last Friday.  I visited the school district's central office to drop off a birthday card for a very good friend who is in durance vile there.  She was one of the first persons I met when I started working for the district.  So, I've known her for a very long time.  I had bought one of those musical cards that play an annoying version of "Happy Birthday" in the hopes that she would play it regularly, possibly over the PA.  I'd also included two lottery tickets, just because....  That was something we did for each other's birthday for the past 20 years.  I don't know if she's EVER played the song.

But I have! :-)

In any case, I went early as the number of people that I wanted to interact with in that building is minimal.  She wasn't in yet, so I put it on her keyboard.  As I was walking out, one of the other people I enjoyed working with was walking in, so I stopped and asked about kids, husband, vacations.  In short, a quick "how ya doin?".  While this is going on, the door opens and in walks one of the assistant superintendents.  I believe he should have been named Peter.

 As in principle.  Or as in the way he acts, which is another name for peter and a shorter version of Richard.

In any case, I continue the conversation with my friend and watch out of the corner of my eye as he approached.  I really wish I could have taken out life insurance on him, payable to me.

When he saw us talking and recognized me, I think he came very close to breaking his neck, looking away as he passed.  My friend and I exchanged a glance and a chuckle.  That was good for a laugh and lowering of the blood pressure all day long.

But that filled the requirement to visit until this time next year.

On a different note, it's a good thing that Sargento de la Fuerza Aérea muy, muy viejo y de solo un ojo, declared this to be "Destroyer Week" on the Chant du Départ Channel as I had already visited one (well...sort of), and had pictures.

In addition to SS-244, USS Cavalla, Seawolf Park has USS Stewart (DE-238),  an Edsall class Destroyer Escort

 

USS Stewart would be the fine ship on the far side of USS Cavalla.  The vessels on the near side are NOT ships.  (In case anyone was asking......)  I thought this an artistic shot.  Two combatants that fought the Japanese.  Two Japanese vehicles.  Hmmm!

In any case, I had exited, (do you disembark a decommissioned ship stuck in cement?) and boarded the Stewart.  As I did so, I racked my brain trying to remember who had that name and might have been worthy of naming a ship after.  

The only one I could think of was this one.

Jimmy!
Source

Or as we like to call him Jimmy Stewart, of Hollywood fame.  He is a legitimate hero.  Two Distinguished Flying Crosses and a Croix de Guerre. He enlisted in the US Army Air Corps in March of 1941, before that became mandatory fashionable and rose to the rank of Colonel in 4 years.  Flew numerous bomber missions against Germany, including missions during "Big Week" where the US 8th Air Force came dangerously close to non-existence.  But...

He's Army Air Corps.  Heck, even the Army didn't like them, much less the Navy, so nope USS Stewart wasn't named after him.

Source

She was named after Charles Stewart (1778-1869).  Stewart entered the Navy at the ripe old age of 13.  During his career, he commanded the USS Constitution, along with several other ships, fought in the Barbary wars and the War of 1812 as well as the undeclared war with France from 1798-1800 known as the Quasi War.  This war was an "unintended consequence" of the French Revolution and was fought because the US did not recognize the post revolution French government and decided that they were not legitimate and therefore, the US's debt to the French for their support in our Revolution was null and void.  I'm sure the fact that we had no money to pay that debt had no bearing on the decision.

C'est le guerre

In any case, Capt Stewart served for 63 years retiring in December of 1861 at the age of 83 years, 4 months and 24 days.  (Yes, Beans, that means he was older even than OldNFO...by a day, maybe two).

It also turns out that DE-238 wasn't the only ship named after Charles Stewart.  USS Stewart (DD-224) was a Clemson class destroyer that was sunk early in WWII, raised and refitted by the Japanese and placed in service by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN).  That would be an interesting post for Destroyer Week, wouldn't it?

So, enough about that History stuff, what was the ship like, juvat?

Well, It was roughly the same size as USS Cavalla, had about 25% more crew than her, and seemed way more spacious on the inside than Cavalla.  Still having sailed in some rough seas aboard ships WAY bigger than either, I think she might have moved around a touch.

That having been said, I did learn a few things about anti-Submarine warfare that I didn't know.  The Destroyer Escort was a smaller, thereby less expensive, ship that was designed to escort merchant ship convoys and provide them with anti-submarine protection.  This freed up Destroyers to escort combatant capital ships and provide them anti-submarine protection.

After making my way through the Cavalla, the bottom sign was unnecessary.

With a top speed of 20 Knots, the DE's could keep up with the merchant ships, have enough speed to run down a sub and weapons to kill the sub when found.

 

Not a very sophisticated gun, but would probably hurt a surfaced sub if it hit.

This I didn't recognize so I spent a bit of time reading the placard for it.  Seems this weapon was called a Hedgehog.  The ship would fire these as they made a pass on a detected sub.  It was different than a depth charge as it had to hit a target to explode.  While that may seem to be a shortcoming, apparently it was not.  With a depth charge, the weapon always explodes when it reaches the specified depth and since multiple weapons were usually employed, contact could/would be lost with the target because of the resultant noise.  This took time to reacquire, allowing the enemy to potentially escape.  Since the Hedghog only exploded when it hit the target, no explosion...no hit, reattack was quicker since reacquisition was, usually, not required. Who knew that a miss might be a good thing? Because of this, hedgehogs had a higher kill rate than depth charges.

Which they did have.

USS Stewart spent most of the war in the Atlantic escorting convoys. Therefore,just in case the bad guys had long range search airplanes, and the Germans did, there were several AAA batteries aboard.

With ammo quite handy.

 

I don't know if this was a long term storage location, of just to keep them handy when battle seemed eminent, but, Skip or someone will know.  It was on the aft side of the bulkhead less than 10' from the gun above and 30' from the one above that one.

 This was the Combat Information center, where the ship was fought.  It was off limits, so couldn't get much detail.  Even Murphy couldn't have sounded battle stations.............I think.

This was the Wheel House, where whomever was driving the boat worked.

The view of the Bow from directly in front of the Wheel House.

Officer's Mess

Passageway.  Wider than on Cavalla, but by no means....wide.

Galley

Enlisted Head

And just because Skip had, at one time, shared a favorite pastime involving this facility and lighted toilet paper.

Privacy at it's finest!

This next one was a bit of a puzzlement.  I suspect it also is an anti-submarine weapon, but the explanation on the placard was not very helpful.

However, this site provided more illumination.  A "K" gun would be used to propel depth charges to either side of the ship, thereby increasing the dispersal pattern of the depth charges.  4 could be mounted on either side so that 8 depth charges could be launched at once along with others being rolled off the stern.

So I guess, depth charges were fairly effective against their target.

An interesting day in Galveston.