From 1943 onward there were repeated reports of a mysterious American destroyer sighted deep in the heart of Japanese-held territory. Reconnaissance aircraft reported her in the Java Sea. She was seen west of New Guinea. She was seen close up and she was seen fleetingly in the distance, but she was sighted several times.

US aircrew swore that the apparition was an old WWI flush-deck four-pipe destroyer of the Semmes class. Early reports were disregarded. US Army aircrew did not enjoy a good reputation for ship recognition, yet more and more reports built up. The silhouette was of an American destroyer, but looking a little strange.

Rumors about this 'Flying Dutchman' abounded. Could she be some sort of behind the lines Commando vessel? Highly unlikely, but then most scuttlebutt is. It didn't help that some reports said she had only three funnels like most of the flushdeckers modified for war service, yet no modified ships had been lost behind Japanese lines and besides most of the flush deckers were engaged in escort duty, for which they were much better suited than facing the dangers of modern air attack, let alone openting behind the enemy lines in a lone wolf role. No, most authonties decided it was an illusion.

Solved

The war had ended and Japan was occupied before the mystery of the 'Ghost ship' was able to be solved. She was Patrol Boat 102 and was found undamaged at Kure.

Ordered as part of the US WW I naval buildup, she bad been ordered from Cramp, Philadelphia and launched in March of 1920 as USS Stewart DD-224. Having missed WW I completely, she was lucky to continue in service for so long, as many others of her kind had gone to scrap yards or been mothballed. Fifty were handed over to the British in a deal for airbases.

By 1941, she was part of the US Far Eastern Fleet (photo at right: in hangchow, China in the 1920s) and skippered by Lt. Commander Harold P. Smith. The old ship was leader of DESDIV 58, led by Commander T. H. Binford. Her division was part of DESRON 29, the US destroyers assigned to ABDA in the defense of Java, and on the night of 18th/l9th February 1942 Binford took the division on a high speed dash along the south coast of Java to join the Dutch Capt De Mecster's light cruiser Tromp off Bali.

About midnight Stewart and her division headed toward a suspected enemy group, with Tromp following up at the rear. They entered Bandoeng Strait at 25 knots but mist made it hard to find any targets, although several enemy ships were actually present and nearby.

The Allied force, running around at high speed in the center of the Strait, was sure to be seen eventually. A salvo of torpedoes was launched at them without result and shortly after the Allied ships saw two Japanese destroyer closing on the group. These were Asashio (Morning High Tide) and Ooshio (High Tide). These vessals were almost as well-armed as Tromp and far superior to the old four-stackers of DESDIV 58.

Open Fire

Stewart illuminated the enemy with a searchlight at 0143 and opened fire with guns and torpedoes. The Japanese replied at once and the Stewart was quickly hit, first by a ricochet that caused some casualties and then by a 5 inch shell that hit her steering aft, causing several casualties and flooding the steeringengine.

Tromp responded by hitting Ooshio on the bridge as two ships of DESDIV 58 (Parrot and Pillsbury) narrowly avoided colliding when Binford swung starboard to head NE up the Strait.

Tromp covered the withdrawal but the Japanese DDs were not finished and gave chase. The Dutch cruiser received a severe mauling before Ooshio, out of control, was forced to break off the pursuit. Tromp had taken hits in quick succesion and headed for the exit from Lombok Strait in a badly damaged condition.

Together Again

At 0217 the ABDA force was all back together and steaming north toward the Lombok Strait exit when they encountered the destroyers Arashio (Rough Sea Flood Tide) and Michishio (Flood Tide) head on. Admiral Kudo flying his flag in the Light Cruiser Nagara nearby, was charged with protecting the invasion transports and had sent them in the hope of slowing the ABDA force enough for him to catch up..

At 0219 the two Japanese cans opened up on Stewart and Edwards at close range bringing on a short sharp and furious engagement. Shells were flying when, still not in the right position because of the earlier near collision, Pillsbury surprised the enemy by appearing out of rhe darkness on their port side. She hit Michishio with a broadside that had the bigger ship reeling at the same time as Edwards whacked her hard from the other side. Tromp in turn passed, delivering a broadside that left the Michishio stopped dead in the water with almost a hundred casualties. Arashio rushed in to help her wounded sister.

The group raced on for Soerabaja at 28 knots. All arrived safely despite Parrot almost colliding with some rocks when her helm jammed. Admiral Kudo had failed to cut then off and the Arashio had little choice but to let then pass on.

Harbor

Arriving in harbor, an inspection of Stewart showed that although she had some superstructure damage, she could still fight. The problem was she would have to be docked to repair the steering. This was not the easiest thing to do in a place stricken with panic and the japanese advancing rapidly, but a privately owned drydock was found and the ship placed in it.

Air raids were constant and the yard hands did a poor job of blocking her up. The shoring was no better. As the floating dock lifted, the keel blocks dipped and Stewart fell partly on to her port side at an angle of about 45 degrees.

Worse still, an air raid scored a direct hit to her. By tbe 24th of February was no place for an Allied ship to be. The docks were being blasted and other ships sunk by the air raids.

Out of torpedos and with his division in urgent need of a dockyard, Binford withdrew to Tjilatjap but could not leave Stewart the way she was. It was decided to blow her up on site, and demolition crews did so on March 2nd 1942. She and the dock sank.

It all looked convincing. Binford reportedd the scuttling and the US Navy wrote her off the list, later giving the name to a new war-built vessal. For all intents and purposes the old Stewart was finished.

Wreck

The wreck ramained in a sunken condition for almost a year, but with things now quiet on the front, IJN clearance crews got to work and raised her. The ship was badly damagod but the US demolition crew had not reckoned on the determination of the Japanese naval garrison. Escorts were badly needed and with the Java area now a bit of a backwater, the IJN main fleet was busy elsewhere.

Allied submarines were busy everywhere. A partial solution was seen in repairing as many Allied vessals as possible. The restoration of the old ship became a sort of private project with locally-based IJN staff working on her.

Recommissioned

She was recommissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy at Soerabaja on the 20 August 1943 as PB-102. "PB" stood for Patrol Boat. All her US armament had been removed and she was fitted with two ex-Dutch Army 3" guns plus two 7.7mm machine guns. So as to not confuse her with US Navy ships, her two forefunnels were trunked together in true Japanese style.

She also carried depth charges and became an important escort in the Java Ses area. This was purely due to the patience and skill of her crew because her machinery was in a very bad way, and only two of four boilers were working. She claimed to attack and sink several Allied submarines and established a good combat reputation in the Java Command.

Although postwar records do not substantiate the kills claimed, she was in the same area as the USS Growler, which was sunk in the South China Sea on November 8th, 1944 while PB-102 was enroute to Japan.

Although her dedicated crew kept the old vessal working, it was decided to send her to Japan for further work at teh Kure Naval Yard, where better facilities were available. She arrived there in mid November 1944 and the ex-Dutch armament was immediately stripped off her. Japanese naval construction viewed her skeptically. She was too narrow in the beam, rolled heavily and was top heavy. British naval constructors would no doubt have heartily agreed.

Refit

The trunked forefunnel was retained, but all stacks were lowered to reduce her center of gravity. She was also given a more Japanese-looking foremast with little more than a stump aft. The bridge was altered to a more "IJN" look and both keels were enlarged and widened. After this, her roll time was greatly improved. With extra ballast also added, displacement rose to 1,539 tons. At the same time work carried out on boiler so that three of the four could be used. In modified form, she could make 26 knots with a shaft horsepower of 28,500.

The armament also underwent modification. Japanese 3.1" AA, refered to by the IJN as the 8cm, were added fore and aft. Fifteen 25mm guns were also added and could carry a respectable 72 depth charges. For unknown reasons but probably just a shortage of guns, she had a grouping of twin 25mm mounts amidships but one of the port mounts was only a single. Hanging lanter-type Japanese Air radar was added on the foremast. A double trumpet Mk2 Mod 2 surface radar was fitted on top of the bridge. Japanese sonar was also added.

After this refit, she was considered a fully operationnal escort vessal and was under orders to return to Java. Because of the loss of the Phillipines, this became impossible. the ship was retained in Japanese home wates and used on escort duty. Despite the massive carrier strikes and other air raids on Japan, the old ship avoided damage. Just not being sunk by submarines skulking about like sharks in a pond must have been an achievement indeed. She even survived the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

Found

On October 15, 1945, US Navy men found her among the hodgepodge of shipping in Kure/Hiroshima Harbor. The Phantom destroyer had at last been found.

Vice Admiral J. B. Oldendorf ordered the ship put back in commision as a US warship and she was taken over by a prize crew on the 28th of October whilie lying in Hiroshima.

As her name was now borne by DE-238, the Admiral commissioned her USS DD-224 so she could at least get her old number back.

On November 3rd USS DD-224 sailed for the USA, bearing the nickname 'RAMP,' those insitails standing for Recovered Allied Military Personnel, the term used for all Allied prisoners of war found in Japanese hands. In other words she was a liberated prisoner of war!

Arrival in US

On arrival in San Francisco (see photo) she was considered quite a curiosity, but such things are short-lived and many bigger ships than her were being scrapped. Obviously the ship had no future in the USN. But mariners can be a sentimental lot The ship had given good service in 1920. She had fought heroically against all odds, been shelled, damaged, bombed, blown up, sume, raised, repaired, and finally recaptured.

Scrapping her did not seem the right thing to do, but she could not be kept either.

On the 24th of May, 1946 the USS D-224 was moved out to sea and given a "Viking Funeral," being expended for target practice. She went down well (for the second time) and somewhere on the ocean floor of the US West Coast, the "Mystery Ship still lies.

USS STEWART (Clemson Class) DD

Displacement: 1190 n

In class: 114

Damage Points: 49

In Service: 1918

Damage Modifier 1.0

Speed: 35

Propulsion: Steam

Crew: 114

Armor Rating: 0

Size Class: C

Weapons:	Total Mounts: 9
F/PB&P/P&PQ/A(1)4 Mk 9 4 in/50	C
A(1)1 Mk14 3 in /23	C
P/S (3)4 533mm TT	C
Area AA: (1)1 Mk14 3 in /23	( )

Damage and Speed Breakdown
Dam Pts:	0	12	25	37	44	49
Surf Speed:	35	26	18	9	0	Sinks

PB-102

Displacement: 1190 n

In class: 1

Damage Points: 49

In Service: 1943

Damage Modifier: 1.0

Speed: 20

Propulsion: Steam

Crew: 100?

Armor Rating: 0

Size Class: C

Weapons:	Total Mounts: 2
F/A(1)2 Dutch 3 in Army guns	C
2 DC Rails w/8 Model 95 DC	D
Light AA: 25 25mm	( )

Remarks

Ex-USS Stewart, sunbk by Allied forces at Soerabaja to prevent capture, then raised by the Japanese and recommissioned as PB-102. Only two of four boilers functional.

Damage and Speed Breakdown
Dam Pts:	0	12	25	37	44	49
Surf Speed:	20	15	10	5	0	Sinks

PB-102 (1944)

Displacement: 1539

In class: 1

Damage Points: 60

In Service: 1944

Damage Modifier:1.0

Speed: 26

Propulsion: Steam

Crew: 120?

Armor Rating: 0

Size Class: C

Weapons:	Total Mounts: 16
F/A(1)2 3 in '80mm/40'//1 Type 2 Mk 2	C
2 DC Rails w/8 Type 2 DC	D
(2)2 Model 94 Y-guns w/8 Type 2 DC	D
Area AA: (1) 2 3 in '80mm/40'	( )
Light AA: 25 25mm	( )

Sensors MK. 2 Mod 2, Type 3 Mk. 1 radars
Type 3 Model 2 sonar

Remarks

Ex-USS Stewart, heavily refitted at Kure Naval Yard. Superstructure and mast modfied, bilge keels enlarged to improve stability. Total of 72 DC carried.

Damage and Speed Breakdown
Dam Pts:	0	15	30	45	54	60
Surf Speed:	26	20	13	7	0	Sinks

Select Bibliography

Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939-1945, Jurgen Rowher, Hummelchen, Ian Allen
Seekrieg, J. Piekalkriewicz, Sudwest Verlag GmbH Co., Munchen, 1980
History of United States Naval operations in World War II, Samuel Eliot Morison, Little, Brown & Coy., Boston
War in the Pacific, John Winton, Hutchinson, Australia
United States Destroyer Operations in World War II, Theodore Roscoe, Naval Institute Press
US Warships of World War II, Paul H. Silverstone, Ian Allen
American Fleet and Escort Destroyers, H.T. Lenton, Macdonald, London
Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1905 - 1921, Naval Institute Press
Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922 - 1946, Naval Institute Press
Jane's Fighting Ships, J.W.R Taylor ed., Jane's Information Group
Japan's War - The Great Pacific Conflict, Edwin P. Hoyt, Guild Publishing, London
Naval Weapons of World War Two, Campbell, Naval Institute Press
Destroyers of World War Two, M. J. Whitely, Arms and Armor Press
Die Japanischen Kriegschiffe 1869-1945, H. Jentschura, D. Jung, P. Mikel, Lehmanns Verlag, 1970
Shipping of the World, H.Wheeler, Odhams, London, 1937
Japanese Naval Vessels at the End of the War, Lt. Com Shizuo Fukui, Naval Institute Press
Atlas of Naval Warfare, H. Pemsel, Arms & Armour Press
Aircraft & Sea Power, A. Hezlet, Peter Danes
The Electron & Sea Power, A Hezlet, Peter Davies
Japanese Warships of World War Two, A.J. Watts, Ian Allen

BT