USS Stewart began her service operating out of Miami as a "school ship" training student officers. She escorted President Roosevelt in the presidential yacht down the Potomac River to rendezvous with USS Iowa in the Chesapeake bay for his mission to Casablanca and Tehran. In 1944, she commenced North Atlantic convoy operations, making 30 crossings with occasional enemy submarine and aircraft encounters. Heavy seas and icing conditions were frequent. Stewart moved to the Pacific theater in mid 1945, and conducted training exercises out of Pearl Harbor until the end of the war. She was decommissioned on 27 March 1946. Stricken on 1 October 1972. On 25 June 1974, Stewart was formally donated to Seawolf Park. She is the second ship named for Rear Admiral Charles Stewart who commanded another ship in the historic naval fleet, USS Constitution, from 1813 to 1815.