with the convoy and escorted it as far as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There, she parted company with the other ships and steamed independently to Bermuda. The destroyer escort arrived at Port Royal on 10 May and, for the next week, made experimental attacks on a captured Italian submarine. From the 18th to the 23rd, Stewart participated in a search off Bermuda for an unidentified radio direction finder contact. She made one depth charge attack on the 18th, but the results were inconclusive. On the 23rd, she put back into Port Royal and remained there four days. Stewart departed Port Royal again on the 27th, this time in a hunter-killer group composed of USS Rhind and USS Wainwright, in addition to herself. On 3 June, the three warships rendezvoused with convoy UC 24, and the group sailed north. Stewart was detached on the 8th and, on the 9th, put into Boston, Massachusetts. On the 25th, she shifted to Casco Bay, Maine, and the following day, conducted antisubmarine warfare (ASW) exercises with the . On the 27th, she sailed south to Norfolk. Stewart arrived on the 29th and put to sea again on 1 July in the escort of convoy UGF 12. The destroyer escort screened the convoy to Naples, Italy, where it arrived on 15 July. She departed Naples on 21 July in the screen of the return convoy, GUF 12, and moored at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 3 August. In mid-August, she returned to Casco Bay for two days of training; then she entered drydock at Boston on the 17th. She left drydock on the 21st and soon got underway to join another convoy at Norfolk. Stewart arrived at Norfolk on 22 August. On the 24th, she began another voyage to Naples, returning to the United States at New York City on 26 September. When she shifted to Casco Bay on 9 October, she took up ASW training again with Vortice. On 20 October, she returned to Boston, from whence she sailed two days later in the screen of convoy CU 44. On that same day, Stewart dropped four depth charges at a sound contact but had to abandon the search and rejoin the convoy. She entered the River Clyde and moored there on 2 November. Eight days later, the destroyer escort sailed for the United States and arrived in New York on 22 November. Following another round of