The first USS Stewart was a in the United States Navy. She was named for Rear Admiral Charles Stewart. Construction Stewart was laid down on 24 January 1900, at Morris Heights, New York, by the Gas Engine and Power Company; launched on 10 May 1902; sponsored by Mrs. Paul Lee Cocke, granddaughter of Rear Admiral Stewart; and commissioned on 1 December 1902. Pre-World War I After commissioning, Stewart served for a short time at the Naval Academy and then joined the Coast Squadron of the North Atlantic Fleet. In 1906, she was placed in reserve at Norfolk, Virginia but was recommissioned in 1907 in the Atlantic Fleet and transferred in 1908 to the Pacific Fleet. As one of the first group of destroyers built in the United States, Stewart quickly became obsolete; and, on 24 February 1916, the Navy Department decided that destroyers numbered 1 through 16 were "no longer serviceable for duty with the fleet." These ships were henceforth classed as "coast torpedo vessels", but this did not prevent Stewart from having an active career in World War I. World War I After the United States declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917, Stewart patrolled first off the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal and along the Colombian coast; and then, after 11 May, off the Pacific entrance to the canal. On 5 July, she returned to the Atlantic, and was fitted out at the Philadelphia Navy Yard from 22 July-11 August for distant service. On 13 August, she sailed for the British Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda with a destroyer flotilla; but, on arrival on 16 August, she grounded in the harbor and required repairs at the Royal Naval Dockyard there and at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which lasted through 10 October. On 11 October, Stewart began dispatch and escort duty from a base in the York River. Except for one interruption for training, this duty continued until 31 December 1917, when she entered the Philadelphia yard to fit out again for distant service. Departing the yard on 15 January 1918, Stewart sailed the next day for Europe in company with , , , and . Stopping in the Azores from 29 January-4 February, Stewart and Worden arrived at Brest, France, on the 9th and began convoy escort duty off that port on the 17th. On 17 April, as Stewart entered Quiberon Bay, an American steamer, Florence H, with