USS Stewart
The USS Stewart was named after Rear Admiral Charles Stewart who commanded the USS Constitution in the War of 1812. It is one of just two preserved destroyer escorts.
This is the ship’s store. The store was usually open for a few hours each evening. This is where you could buy cigarettes, toiletries, and other small items.
This is the engineering office. It was also referred to as the log room. All of the engineering logs and blueprints pertaining to the ship and it’s systems were stored here.
We are moving into the crew head. You may know it as the bathroom. It is centrally located on the main deck close to where the crew work and just above where most of them sleep. This area was shared by up to 200 crew members.
This is the machine shop.
Heading back out on deck. These are the depth charges. Each of these contained 300lbs of TNT. They were set to explode anywhere from 30 to 600 feet below water. The purpose would be to destroy a ship’s hull or just cause a sonar disruption that would allow a friendly submarine to escape from an enemy.
This is repair station #5. It contains all of the tools the damage control team would need to respond to fires or other types of damage in the engine rooms.
This is the officer’s pantry where meals were prepared by stewards.
Next to the pantry is the wardroom where the officers would eat.
The doors in the wardroom go to the officer’s staterooms.
We are now in the main galley. Here food was cooked three times per day for 200 crew members. Additionally midnight rations were prepared for those who worked late at night.
This is one of the anti-aircraft guns on the Stewart.
Watch your step going down to the crew quarters.
These are the “mess decks” with a steam table for serving food as well as tables for eating. They also had tables where they could eat near their bunks.
This ladder leads to the wheelhouse.
They call this room the Combat Information Center. This is where they would track, analyze, and evaluate potential air, land, and sea threats and pass that information on to those commanding the ship.
This is the flag bag which holds the different flags that can be hoisted for signals.
This is the ship’s office which was run by a yeoman. He was essentially the equivalent of an executive administrative assistant and human resources. The office was close to the captain’s quarters because he worked directly for the captain and kept personnel files on all of the crew members.
This is the radio room which was manned 24 hours a day by two radio operators and a supervisor.
These are the captain’s quarters.
That concludes our tour of the USS Stewart.
