Submarine USS Cavalla (SS-244) and Destroyer Escort USS Stewart (DE-238) - Galveston, TX
Posted by: 
Raven
N 29° 20.048 W 094° 46.750
15R E 327254 N 3246319
These two WWII US Navy vessels are on display at the Seawolf Memorial Park on Pelican Island, just north of Galveston Texas.
Waymark Code: WMWVR2
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/18/2017
Views: 3
Two US Navy vessels are on display at Seawolf Memorial Park on Pelican Island, just north of Galveston Texas: the Gato-class Submarine USS Cavalla (SS-244) and the Destroyer Escort USS Stewart (DE-238).
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Commissioned on 29 February 1944, the USS Cavalla (SS-244) is a Gato-class US Navy submarine. She is named for a salt water fish of the pompano family inhabiting waters off the eastern coast of the Americas from Cape Cod to Rio de la Plata.
The USS Cavalla conducted a total of 6 patrols during WWII's Pacific Conflict. Her maiden patrol rendered her the distinguished service that earned her a Presidential Unit Citation: en route to her station in the eastern Philippines in June 1944, Cavalla made contact with a large Japanese task force. She tracked the force for several hours, then relayed invaluable information which contributed heavily to the overwhelming US victory scored in the Battle of the Philippine Sea (the famous "Marianas Turkey Shoot"). With this great service completed, Cavalla continued her pursuit -- on June 19th she caught up with the carrier Shokaku landing planes and quickly fired a spread of six torpedoes for three hits, enough to send Shokaku to the bottom. After a severe depth charging by three destroyers, Cavalla escaped to continue her patrol.
The submarine conducted 5 more Pacific patrols, none of them truly mentionable. She was placed out of commission in reserve in March 1946, then recommissioned in 1951 to engage in various fleet exercises in the Caribbean and off Nova Scotia, as well as other duties.
Her final decommision was in 1969.
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The USS Stewart (DE–238) is a US Navy Destroyer Escort military vessel, one of only two preserved U.S. destroyer escorts still in existence to date. It was commissioned on May 31, 1943.
The 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 in late 1945. In 1974, Stewart was formally donated to Seawolf Park. She is the 3rd ship named for Rear Admiral Charles Stewart who commanded another ship in the historic naval fleet during the war of 1812, namely the USS Constitution.
Visit Instructions:
Please provide another photo of the location. You don't have to be in there shot, but you can. The photo requirement is to discourage any armchair visiting.